Chelsea leapfrog Arsenal to go third in the Premier League after defeating Swansea 2-0 at Stamford Bridge, and the hero for the Blues, as he has been on numerous occasions was Frank Lampard
Lampard shows there is no substitute for class and produced yet another masterclass performance.
The England midfielder came off the bench on 24 minutes at he expense of injured
Ramires and injected quality into a lethargic midfield, which up to then, had struggled to break down a spirited Swansea rearguard.
Lampard scored the second goal, his 201th for the Blues with a thunderbolt penalty deep into added fine in the first half.
Three minutes earlier, Lampard had set up the opener for Oscar as the Blues finally penetrated the Welsh side's dogged resistance.
Lampard now needs just one more goal for the boys in blue to equal Bobby Tambling's all-time Chelsea record.
The former striker was even at the Bridge, flown over from his home in Ireland to be a half-time guest for the crowd to show it's appreciation.
The first attack of the game came on six minutes with a speculative shot by Eden Hazard from 25 yards.
Michael Vorm, in goal for the visitors , comfortably held.
Nine minutes later and the crowd, who by now were drifting off to sleep such was the paucity of attacking, suddenly woke up as Demba Ba let fly from 35 yards. his crips left -footer was fumbled by Vorm but Chico Flores tidied up to clear the danger.
Ashley Cole, back in the side following injury produced an acrobatic last-gasp clearance from a deep Wayne Routledge cross five minutes later.
Sadly for Ramires, the Brazil midfielder suffered a muscle injury on 24 minutes, allowing Frank Lampard to come off the bench to continue his pursuit of the two goals to equal the club record of 202 goals set by Bobby Tambling.
The England striker had a taste of goal three minutes later but his left-footer sailed high over Vorm's goal.
He followed that up with a trademark right-footer seven minutes before the break but Vorm scuppered his moment by having the audacity to make a fine save, tipping the daisy-cutter wide of goal.
Gary Cahill powered a header inches over the Swansea cross bar from the resultant corn kick as the Blues sought to break the deadlock.
The Blues after ratcheting up the pressure finally got their deserved goal when John Terry and Lampard conspired to set up Oscar to ram the ball home past Vorm from the edge of the penalty area.
On the stroke of half-time Leon Britton tugged Mata in the area and the Spain midfielder hi the ground.
Referee Mark Clattenberg pointed to the penalty spot. Only one man was going to take the kick, and Lampard duly smacked the kick past Vorm to score number 201 for the Blues.
Ba, a peripheral player for most of the game produced two fine efforts early after the restart, the second one forced Vorm into another's fine diving save.
With the home side in the ascendency, Swans boss Michael Laudrup decided to bring on Nathan Dyer at the expense of Wayne Routledge on 65 minutes
Four minutes later and Itay Schechter came off the bench for the visitors for Britton.
The Blues should have wrapped the points when, with 17 minutes to go, Hazard, wide on the left, zipped the ball across the Swans penalty area, birthday boy Mata picked the ball up and hit a right-footer towards goal, but Ba could only get a toe to it and the ball inched wide of Vorm's right post.
The game petered out with neither side showing enough willing and determination to alter the scoreline.
Teams: Cech; Azpilicueta, Terry (c), Cahill, Cole; Ramires, Luiz; Oscar, Mata, Hazard; Ba. Subs: Turnbull, Ivanovic, Bertrand, Lampard, Benayoun,Torres, Mikel
Swansea City: Vorm; Rangel, Flores, Williams, Davies; Ki, Britton, Routledge, De Guzman, Hernandez; Michu
Subs:
Tremmel, Taylor, Dyer, Monk, Schechter, More Tiendalli.
Referee Mark Clattenberg.