Chelsea responded to its stunning 5-2 home loss against West Bromwich Albion by beating Porto 2-0 in the UEFA Champions League in midweek and built on that performance in fine fashion against Palace.

Havertz has struggled to reproduce his Bayer Leverkusen form at Chelsea but was instrumental in lifting the Blues back above Liverpool, a 2-1 winner over Aston Villa earlier in the day, and into the UEFA Champions League places.

The Germany international ended his drought in the eighth minute and then teed up Christian Pulisic a minute and 42 seconds later to give Chelsea command, which was furthered through Kurt Zouma's header.

Christian Benteke reduced the deficit in the second half before Pulisic had the final say with his second 12 minutes from time.

Vicente Guaita sharply denied Pulisic from Mason Mount's cross but within 12 seconds the Palace goalkeeper was picking the ball out of his net after Havertz ended his near six-month wait for a league goal with a wonderfully measured finish into the bottom-left corner.

The exquisite placement of Havertz's strike rendered Guaita helpless and he was soon undone by the power of Pulisic's left foot as he collected Havertz's pull back and rifled into the roof of the net from point-blank range.

Brimming with confidence, Havertz went close to sublime second when he produced a deft touch to lift Jorginho's long ball over the head of Patrick van Aanholt and shot on the half-volley, only to see Guaita repel his effort with a fingertip save.

The third goal did arrive in short order, however, as Zouma towered over Gary Cahill to meet Mount's excellent free-kick delivery with a powerful header, the Premier League's top-scoring defender registering his fifth of the season.

Another excellent Guaita save was required to deny Mount a deserved goal and Zouma would have had a second if not for a goal-line clearance by Van Aanholt.

Chelsea took its foot off the accelerator somewhat in the second half, and Palace took advantage when Benteke headed in Jeffrey Schlupp's left-wing cross.

Guaita again prevented Havertz from doubling his tally but could not stop Pulisic from doing so as the tucked home Reece James's deflected low cross to round off a superb showing.