Chelsea shook an unexpected loss to Newcastle United out of their system by overcoming Schalke 3-0 on Wednesday to close on a place in the Champions League knockout phase.
The London club had seen a six-game winning run ended at St James' Park on Saturday, but they got back on track by reasserting their control of Champions League Group E with their 100th victory in UEFA competition.
Schalke goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand gifted Samuel Eto'o the opening goal with a dreadful error and the Chelsea striker claimed a second shortly after half-time before substitute Demba Ba added a late third.
It was a repeat of the scoreline from when the sides met in Gelsenkirchen two weeks ago and it left Jose Mourinho's side three points clear of Schalke at the top of the group with two matches to come.
Chelsea can now qualify for the last 16 with a draw in their next match at Basel, whose 1-1 draw at home to Steaua Bucharest in the other group game took some of the sting out of defeat for Jens Keller's Schalke.
Mourinho had threatened to make "11 changes" after the 2-0 loss at Newcastle; in the end he restricted himself to six, with Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta, John Mikel Obi, Willian, Andre Schurrle and Eto'o coming in.
Schalke's squad has been ravaged by injury this season, but it was Chelsea who looked like a team of strangers in the opening stages as the Germans went close on three occasions.
Julian Draxler clipped a shot narrowly wide of the left-hand post from the edge of the box, with Adam Szalai and Christian Fuchs also threatening from distance.
