Young talent and resilience proved key, and attacking threats emerged in a dominant 5-1 FA Cup victory.
On Saturday evening, the Liam Rosenior era got underway at Chelsea, with the team's FA Cup quest beginning in the third round, away to fellow London side Charlton Athletic. The draw for the fourth round will take place before Liverpool plays Barnsley tomorrow evening.
It would be a near enough perfect start for the new boss, as his side came away 5-1 victors. Fans can scoff at the opposition, but Crystal Palace had shown earlier in the day that you cannot take anyone lightly in this competition.
So, with that being said, what were the biggest positives from this emphatic victory?
he test of character shown in the second half, from a very young age, was encouraging to see. After 57 minutes, Charlton had scored a goal back, and their tails were up. The crowd were bang up for it, and it would have been easy for Chelsea to fold.
But, they didn't. Quite the opposite: five minutes later, Marc Guiu had restored the two-goal lead, and from there, the team managed a tough away game very well.
That is a nice segue to the next positive. It was great to see Guiu grab a goal and an assist. It has been a difficult, weird season for him so far, so it was great to see him have a good day at the office yesterday.
There has simply not been enough productivity from the forwards this season, so the 19-year-old scoring and assisting in the same week as Liam Delap scored his first Premier League goal is great to see.
Moving on, it was great to see a strong performance from Josh Acheampong at right-back. The defender completed 3/4 dribbles, created three chances, and had 106 touches of the ball over the 90 minutes.
With Reece James often used in midfield these days and needing his minutes managed, as well as Malo Gusto's spike in minutes, having another player who could fill in there certainly does the team and Rosenior absolutely no harm.
In the middle of the park, it was a top performance from Facundo Buonanotte. The Argentine loanee grabbed an assist, created two big chances, and generally looked very good before being replaced by compatriot Enzo Fernandez with 20 minutes remaining.
Another positive was Estevao's cameo. It has been a difficult few weeks for the Brazilian, but he looked very confident as soon as he came on. In just 24 minutes on the pitch, he had four shots, created a big chance, won a penalty, and completed 2/3 dribbles. He must be in contention to start against Arsenal on Wednesday evening.
Finally - ironically - the end of the game was good to see. The relentlessness to score two goals even though the game was nearly done anyway. Seeing Pedro Neto strike the ball with his right foot was quite surprising and very encouraging. That was assisted by Fernandez, who then scored a penalty to put the icing on the cake.
So, all in all - a very good night. Again, it is worth remembering that Charlton manager Nathan Jones knocked Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup with Southampton in the same season they won the treble. That, coupled with Palace's result against Macclesfield, shows just how impressive Chelsea's performance was in Rosenior's first game in charge.