English FA Premiership/ Chelsea 3 Fulham 2: A craftsmanlike economy narrowly had the better of Fulham's passionate endeavour. The visitors had capsized at 2-0 down but after they had righted themselves to equalise, it took Hernan Crespo to sink them irretrievably.

As Joe Cole ran clear on the right in the 74th minute, the Argentinian found space for himself beyond the centre-backs and met the ideal cross with a volley that sent the ball skipping low past Tony Warner, who had come on following Mark Crossley's hamstring injury. Crespo had contributed hardly anything else, but Chelsea craved such a piece of individualism after being stripped of their steely cool.

Fulham took every conceivable benefit from this game other than a point, a trait that has become ingrained this season. They ought to have broken that trend against a Chelsea side whose display was jumbled. Jose Mourinho's players twitched with panic when it looked as if they would give Fulham an invitation to pull level once again after 81 minutes.

It was charitable of the referee Graham Poll to rule an almost horizontal John Terry had handled inadvertently when a Luis Boa Morte drive cannoned off his extended arms. "A stone-cold penalty," said the Fulham manager Chris Coleman, even if his counterpart Mourinho presented the episode as a typically whole-hearted block by his captain.

There was at least a parity of mistreatment. Chelsea, while 2-1 in front, had also had their pleas spurned when Zat Knight palmed a pass in the penalty area. It was the centre-back's fortune that the referee shared his view that the ball had already gone behind.

The anguish Coleman suffered over the Terry decision was tempered by the knowledge his side, too, had probably been spared. "Graham Poll is a very good referee," he said. "I think they need help, with video evidence."

The footage can merely be studied in the aftermath and Mourinho is already squinting at the images that rolled across his mind at the close. He made out some heartening scenes. Chelsea were not fazed by an uncommon brush with adversity and relished an exercise in brinkmanship when, with the score level, their manager switched to a back three by removing the clunky Robert Huth and adding another forward in Didier Drogba.

"I could only make that decision because I trust the players' mentality," Mourinho said.

His other key alteration was the half-time rejig that released Cole from his role as an unlikely replacement for the injured Michael Essien in midfield. With Eidur Gudjohnsen coming off the bench to assume those duties, Mourinho, realising his own miscalculation, put him back on the flank. The Englishman's powers were restored immediately.

"I thought it was not very clever to play my best attacking player in midfield," Mourinho said of his deliberations at the interval, before expanding on his acclaim for a footballer "in magnificent form in every game". Nonetheless, the manager's fashion sense does not incline him to sackcloth and ashes.

"When I came here no one knew Joe Cole's position, not even him," said Mourinho. "The talent was there but no one knew how to get it out of him."

The implied compliment to himself was unmistakable, but it is true Cole has been transformed now his appreciation of attacks from a starting position on the wing has deepened. He will be missed when a suspension keeps him out of next Monday's match at West Ham after a caution yesterday.

It had not looked as if he would need to commit any misdemeanour at all as Chelsea enjoyed instant domination. This victory, as Mourinho indicated, is twinned with the similarly haphazard 4-2 win over Blackburn in October. "It looks as if the game is won and then you give a gift to (the opposition's) self-belief," he commented.

Huth had nodded down for William Gallas to take his first goal of the season deftly in the third minute and after 24 minutes Frank Lampard extended the lead with a 25-yarder that deflected severely off Sylvain Legwinski. Fulham were undermanned in the build-up to the goal, with Brian McBride receiving treatment for a cut head, but they were to get an unlikely break.

A simple free-kick into the area by Boa Morte slipped through the arms and legs of Petr Cech and McBride tapped in after 29 minutes. A mistake of comparable crassness from the goalkeeper had injected the mayhem into the Blackburn match.

Fulham equalised in the 56th minute as the outstanding Liam Rosenior freed Boa Morte for a cut-back from the left and Cole then brought down McBride. Heidar Helguson converted the penalty and Chelsea, after seven consecutive clean sheets in all competitions, had been breached twice in under an hour. They got over the mortification, but Fulham will climb the rankings if they go on being as undaunted as this.

* Guardian Service