Blackburn Rovers 0 Chelsea 1: A first half goal from Joe Cole ensured Chelsea stay in touch with Manchester United and Arsenal and consigned Blackburn Rovers to their fourth consecutive defeat in the Premier League.
For the opening 20 minutes Blackburn appeared anything but overawed. Mark Hughes' side took the game to Chelsea and should have opened the scoring, but the opportunities they created always seem to end up the wrong side of the woodwork.
It was an enthralling start from Rovers, with David Bentley then shaving the bar with a rising drive from the edge of the area two minutes later.
Bentley was closer still in the 11th minute, curling a free-kick from the left wing onto the crossbar after he had been felled by Alex that brought a yellow card for the centre-back.
Still Rovers continued to press, and in the 13th minute a superb ball from Bentley into Santa Cruz culminated in the Paraguay star firing a 16-yard angled effort inches wide of the right-hand post.
Perhaps inevitably, given all those missed chances, it came as no surprise when Chelsea took the lead in the 22nd minute.
They should have done so a minute earlier, only for a shot on the turn from Andriy Shevchenko clearing the bar from eight yards.
Cole's crucial contribution came moments later when Chelsea seized on a sloppy clearance on the halfway line. Within seconds Salomon Kalou had played a punishing cross-field ball into the path of Cole who finished a surging run with a 16-yard strike into the top left-hand corner.
Undaunted, Blackburn struck the bar again, this time following a stunning save from Petr Cech. From a short free-kick, Bentley thundered a 30-yard drive into the wall from where Santa Cruz teed up Steven Reid from 15 yards, only for Cech to push the shot onto the crossbar.
Striking the woodwork, though, was not the sole preserve of Rovers as Lampard followed suit within three minutes.
There was still time in the half for Zurab Khizanishvili, starting his first league game this season in the absence of the suspended Christopher Samba, to shave the crossbar with a back-flick header to another inswinging Bentley free-kick.
Despite all those chances, Blackburn then failed to conjure one when it mattered most after Cech received treatment early in the second half for a hip injury.
The Chelsea star limped around gingerly for 11 minutes before finally calling it a day just after the hour, and without being tested.
His withdrawal gave Hilario his first appearance since January 13, and within moments he was villain and hero, with the Portuguese lucky to escape for an early indiscretion.
Hilario appeared a goalkeeper inactive for almost a year as he was nowhere near a Bentley corner, but was fortunate to see a downward header from Santa Cruz finish a yard wide of his left-hand post.
However, the 32-year-old instantly redeemed himself with an outstanding fingertip stop to turn past the post a bullet header from Santa Cruz in meeting a left-wing cross from Bentley.
