Chelsea went into their encounter with local rivals Fulham in 2013 aware that they needed three points to maintain their momentum in the race for third place with Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
As for Fulham, they were sitting safely in midtable with their Premier League status for another season almost secured, but they possessed the motivation to put a dent in Chelsea's hopes of earning Champions League qualification for the following campaign.
Interim manager Rafael Benitez handed starts to Victor Moses and Fernando Torres, while Fulham boss Martin Jol paired Mladen Petric with Dimitar Berbatov in the Cottagers' attack.
Fulham began the derby fixture much stronger than their more illustrious opponents, and they should have taken the lead as early as the third minute when Sascha Riether found Bryan Ruiz with a terrific cross from the right, but the winger could only divert the ball over the crossbar.
The visitors briefly threatened through Frank Lampard, but the Blues were lacking urgency in a fixture through which they were hoping to bring to an end an away run that had seen them pick up just one point from their last four matches on the road.
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However, after John Arne Riise had tested Petr Cech from distance, Chelsea took the lead thanks to a remarkable strike from David Luiz. The Brazilian received the ball midway in the Fulham half before unleashing a stunning effort from all of 35 yards that swerved past Mark Schwarzer and found the top corner.
Despite conceding the opener, Fulham continued to have the majority of the play, with Berbatov going close with a shot with the outside of his boot minutes after Urby Emanuelson had forced Cech into a sprawling save to push the ball behind for a corner.
However, their dominance was undone for a second time moments before the half-time whistle when Chelsea doubled their advantage. Juan Mata curled a free kick towards the back post and after getting the better of Philippe Senderos, John Terry headed the ball past Schwarzer from six yards.
The opening 15 minutes of the second half saw Fulham try to push for a goal that would weaken Chelsea's stranglehold on the game, but as they began to force things in the final third, Chelsea were able to take advantage by launching counter-attacks of their own without much success.
Petric had found himself on the periphery of the action, but two chances came his way in the space of three minutes. After failing to get on the end of a cross from Riether, he played a one-two with Berbatov but he miscued his shot well wide of the post.
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Another chance went begging for the Croatian after he failed to convert Senderos's goal-bound header, which could have found the net without the intervention of the forward, and Fulham were made to pay as Chelsea sealed the three points with a third goal.
A corner was delivered into Torres to flick the ball onto the far post where Terry were waiting to nick in front of Riether to tap the ball into the net from a yard.
Fulham continued to press forward without coming close to a consolation goal, leaving Chelsea, who nearly added a fourth in the final moments through Moses, to comfortably record three points at Craven Cottage.
Chelsea followed up the triumph with 14 points from their remaining six league fixtures to end the season two points clear of Arsenal in third place.
The setback against the Blues resulted in Fulham going on a worrying sequence of five successive defeats, but they ended the season with a 3-0 success away at Swansea City that saw the Cottagers end the campaign in 12th place.
Darren Plant
