Chelsea huffed and they puffed, and they eventually got the better of Leicester City at Stamford Bridge thanks to a goal from their unlikely talisman Marc Cucurella.
Having beaten Southampton 4-0 last time out in the Premier League, Enzo Maresca's team made it back-to-back victories over relegation-threatened sides at Stamford Bridge, although they were made to work hard for all three points against Leicester, who repelled and frustrated them for long spells.
It took a low strike from left-back Cucurella on the hour mark, the Spaniard catching out Mads Hermansen, who had earlier saved a penalty from Cole Palmer, from the edge of the area to secure the decisive breakthrough.
Liam Twomey breaks down the main talking points from a narrow Chelsea victory.
Good luck finding another footballer in the Premier League, and perhaps in all of Europe, quite like Marc Cucurella.
As a left-back, he is relentlessly frantic, sometimes flawed and always fiercely competitive. Most opposition supporters just see the gleeful provocateur, a favourite villain. Many at Stamford Bridge have come to regard him as a cult hero (and not just because of the hair).
In the eyes of Maresca, he is frequently the key to the success of the system, the unorthodox piece on the chessboard that creates an unsolvable problem for opponents.
Frequently the full-back who inverts into the base of midfield or a more advanced role, here Cucurella was given a more conventional overlapping brief on the left -- presumably in order to allow Christopher Nkunku, nominally Chelsea's left winger, to operate in the left pocket.
Either side of Palmer's missed penalty, it was Cucurella who looked like Chelsea's likeliest route to a goal, his well-timed runs beyond the back post putting Leicester's back five into scramble mode whenever Enzo Fernandez or Moises Caicedo could find him with a sharp switch of play.
Chelsea never quite put the pieces together in those sequences but just as the second half looked in serious danger of lurching towards Stamford Bridge toxicity, it was Cucurella who conjured a moment very much not out of Maresca's playbook, arrowing a precise low shot into Hermansen's bottom corner.
It was his fourth Premier League goal of the campaign; only Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke have found the net more in 2024-25. No wonder Cucurella is beloved here.
There was an odd lack of certainty as Palmer stepped up to attempt to extend his flawless Premier League penalty streak to 13 in the 22nd minute against Leicester at Stamford Bridge.
Palmer has not looked himself for weeks, underpinned by the fact that he had not scored or assisted in any of his previous six league appearances for Chelsea. He did not look visibly anxious as he stepped up after Victor Kristiansen clumsily trod on Jadon Sancho's foot in the penalty area, even during the wait for VAR to confirm the decision.
His focus would hardly have been helped by referee Tim Robinson requiring him to re-place the ball on the penalty spot, but the Palmer who has wrecked Premier League defences for much of the past 18 months would not have been remotely fazed by any such disruptions.
Then came the kick: hard and low to the goalkeeper's left, just like six of the 12 successful Palmer penalties that had preceded it.
All the available evidence suggests this is Palmer's favourite area to put the ball and Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen clearly knew that too. He flung himself hard in that direction but did not need to stretch all the way to his post in order to get two firm hands to it and tip it wide.
Palmer wheeled away biting his lip. Had he gone for his preferred spot due to a lack of confidence? We will never get a definitive answer but the longer his final-third drought goes, the more compelling the theory will become.
The second half only added to the sense of a player in disorienting drift with a series of misplaced passes and questionable decisions culminating in a surprise substitution for Tyrique George in the 73rd minute. He left the field downcast and went straight down the tunnel. Chelsea fans will hope that when he re-emerges, he will be out of this funk.
He entered the pitch to predictable boos from the travelling Leicester supporters but Wesley Fofana will care far more about the fact that he left it to resounding applause -- and crucially under his own steam -- after 73 impressive minutes on the right of Chelsea's defence.
This was Fofana's first appearance since hobbling off with a hamstring injury that Maresca initially claimed might end his season in early-December. He has had plenty of time to proceed cautiously with his rehabilitation and there were no signs of ill effects here, or of a lack of rhythm from such a prolonged period without competitive action.
Fofana loves to defend on the front foot and his aggression helped stabilise Chelsea on numerous occasions, stepping up to cut off burgeoning Leicester attacks before they could gain momentum and carrying the ball with speed and purpose over the halfway line.
He also showcased vital defensive instincts to stick out a leg and take a dangerous inswinging cross from Kristiansen off the waiting head of Jamie Vardy in the first half as Chelsea wobbled.
Maresca's team are demonstrably better defensively when Fofana is on the pitch and while that raises longer-term concerns about the viability of this squad's construction, given his injury record, right now the Frenchman's availability is a huge boost to Chelsea's attempts to breathe fresh life into their Champions League qualification challenge.
We'll bring you this after today's post-match press conferences.
Thursday, March 13: Copenhagen (home), Conference League last-16 second leg, 8pm UK, 3pm ET