Jose Mourinho’s side needed three points to complete the triumph that had become an inevitability in recent weeks as they moved out of sight of their rivals to reclaim the crown from Manchester City.
And victory was secured by Eden Hazard’s goal on the stroke of half-time, the Belgian heading past Julian Speroni after the Palace goalkeeper had saved the PFA Player of the Year’s penalty.
That gave Mourinho his third title as Chelsea manager, and the first of his second spell in charge. It was the club’s fifth top-flight title and came five years after their last and 60 years since their first.
The celebrations that swept around Stamford Bridge at the final whistle were fully deserved for a Chelsea side who had set the pace since the start of the season.
They played with flair and verve to make an all-conquering start then showed the ruthless efficiency that is the hallmark of all Mourinho sides after losing leading scorer Diego Costa for a crucial closing phase of the campaign.
At the head of it all was the master strategist Mourinho, adding the title to the Capital One Cup won against Tottenham at Wembley and vindicating Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s decision to turn, once again, to the manager who brought him his first successes with titles in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Banners were draped from the Shed End at Stamford Bridge in honour of Mourinho, bearing slogans such as: “The Special One – He’s One Of Us.” And while the Portuguese may be a divisive figure elsewhere, there was no doubting his heroic status at Chelsea after the successes he had engineered.
The statistics backed up Mourinho’s brilliance as this was his eighth title in 12 years with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid.
This decisive victory over Palace may not have been achieved with sparkling football but the title win was closed out with the nerveless professionalism of a team that knew what needed to be done and did it – as they had so often.
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