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When José Mourinho turned to the Crystal Palace supporters at full-time and applauded them, he was driven by more than Corinthian spirit. The travelling fans were magnificent, particularly as their team trailed twice, but the Chelsea manager does everything for a reason and it became obvious that something had needled him about the levels of support from the home crowd.
"They are what they are," Mourinho said of the Chelsea fans. "For me, the most important thing is the passion you have. And our fans are very, very passionate about their club, sometimes more in the street than in the stadium, but it's their way of being. I never complain about that.
"I simply told the players that they must have big personality to play the way they have to play and not to play the way the supporters want them to play. So in the last 10 minutes, when we are keeping possession of the ball and we are trying to kill, physically, the opponent, we are doing very well. If they think we are not doing very well they are wrong but they can express themselves.
"The players, they must have the personality to do the right thing and they did the right thing. In the last 10 minutes – after the situation where Palace could score – we kept control of the game, we had the ball and that is also important."
Chelsea diehards are desperate to create a more boisterous atmosphere at Stamford Bridge and it was why a circular from the club last Thursday which threatened to ban any fans who persistently stood up went down badly.
The Chelsea Supporters Trust sent an open letter to Ron Gourlay, the club's chief executive, which urged him to engage with them over how the match-day experience could be improved for everyone, rather than simply threaten punishment. The CST would like to see a designated area at Stamford Bridge for supporters who want to stand and get behind the team.
Mourinho's status is such that he can get away with chiding the home crowd, even if it might have grated with some of them to see him saluting the Palace fans and praising them as "fantastic" for supporting their team "to the end". Mourinho's wider point, though, concerned Chelsea's lack of killer instinct.
At 1-0 up, Branislav Ivanovic dragged the ball wide of the far post and at 2-1 Willian shot weakly when well-placed. Mourinho kicked a kitbag in frustration. "When you don't kill opponents when you are playing well … you put yourself into trouble and you panic a bit," he said. "You shake and you make mistakes. The base of our game is to kill opponents by scoring goals. We don't want to go in the direction of being more defensive, which is the easy direction."
The Palace were excellent in the second half and the substitute Stuart O'Keefe was denied by John Terry's goalline block on 77 minutes. Playing like this, Palace will not be relegated. When Chelsea closed the game in the final 10 minutes, it led to the grumbling that irked Mourinho but his team did create chances at the very end only for Ramires to fluff a square ball when clean through and the goalkeeper, Julián Speroni, to deny the substitutes, André Schürrle and Demba Ba, with a brilliant double-save.
Despite the stuttering and muttering, Chelsea moved to within two points of the leaders, Arsenal. It was tempting to wonder what might happen if they find their stride.
Man of the match Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
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