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LONDON. — In the end it worked out as most of those at Stamford Bridge had hoped and Roman Abramovich was waving and grinning from the posh seats. Chelsea beat Crystal Palace 1-0, thanks to a goal by the star of the season and clinched the title, their first in five years. Eden Hazard scored the goal, nodding in the rebound after missing his first penalty in the Barclays Premier League just before half-time. Cue champagne corks and celebrations down the King’s Road.

They defended the lead, produced another clean sheet and the best team in the land are the champions. Bring on the streamers and the Queen song.

Hazard was an appropriate match-winner on such a day, and yet his goal came with accusations that he dived for the penalty and there were more uneasy moments when the party seemed capable of falling flat and Jose Mourinho’s touchline activities provided a strange sideshow.

Mourinho sulked moodily, clearly dissatisfied with the level of support of the home crowd for his team as they went in pursuit of the win they needed.

He seemed to court the Palace supporters as they sang in one corner of the Shed End, ignored his own fans when they later sang his name and reacted angrily when they sang Frank Lampard’s name, in the closing stages.

The expectant atmosphere ate away at him. Outside Stamford Bridge the street traders had been doing healthy business in “Champions 2015” T-shirts and flags. Inside, they waited for the moment to unfurl them.

Together with Palace’s determination not to roll over, it made life awkward.

Palace fans were boisterous as ever, and Mourinho gave off the vibe that he was not impressed. He criticised the Stamford Bridge crowd earlier in the season and they were often subdued as the visitors proved difficult to break down.

Chelsea were without Oscar in the squad, adding further intrigue to the head injury suffered, last weekend. Oscar played on until half-time at Arsenal after taking a heavy blow from David Ospina. Then he was an unused substitute at Leicester in midweek.

There have been questions asked by concussion experts since, but he was omitted by Mourinho. Ramires was selected but felt ill in the warm-up and pulled out. Juan Cuadrado came in for only this third Chelsea start and Nathan Ake moved onto the bench.

Cuadrado has not found his stride since his January arrival from Fiorentina and he struggled again as Chelsea found Palace stubborn opponents. The Colombian was replaced by John Obi Mikel at half-time.

When they did find a way through the defensive shield, they found Julian Speroni at his agile best.

Speroni thwarted Nemanja Matic at the near post after a bizarre sequence of play, when Palace attempted to catch Chelsea offside and succeeded only in deserting their goalkeeper and leaving him to fend for himself.

This he managed, as he did moments later, when he parried a wobbly free-kick by Didier Drogba and reacted quickly to claw the rebound away from John Terry. — Mailonline.