An Eidur Gudjohnsen special coupled with a Damien Duff drive were enough to keep Chelsea in the title hunt, while disappointing Fulham's only threat came at set-pieces, from which they got they only goal from a Mark Pembridge left footer.
After only two minutes Duff lost the ball to Barry Hayles in midfield, who surged into the penalty box only to be dispossessed by John Terry.
Two minutes later an excellent Blues move involving Hernan Crespo left Frank Lampard unmarked inside box, only for the England midfielder to blast his effort wide.
However, three minutes later Gudjohnsen did not make the same mistake.
Marcel Desailly fed the ball to Gudjohnsen and the Icelandic international turned and unleashed a beautiful arcing left-footer from 25 yards, which sailed high and wide of Edwin Van der Sar's despairing dive.
Chelsea looked to build on their excellent start and on 11 minutes a Duff corner was cleared, but was drilled back into the danger area into path of Gudjohnsen, via the head of Terry. But this time his right foot volley from ten yards out flew over the bar.
The Cottagers struggled to gain a foothold in the game and by the 15th minute they had just one shot to their name, a half-hearted Steed Malbranque effort that was well wide.
Despite Chelsea's dominance of the opening stages Fulham were next to score - with their first effort on target.
After 18 minutes Sean Davis was felled by Lampard, handing Pembridge a chance from a free-kick. The Welshman's powerful left-footed strike took a deflection off Jesper Gronkjaer and sailed past Blues keeper Marco Ambrosio to make it 1-1.
Nine minutes later a surging run by Gronkjaer on the left saw him outpace Moritz Volz and send over an excellent cross, which beat Van der Sar, but there was no Chelsea forward there to capitalise.
The Dutch keeper then denied Duff, but it proved only a temporary reprieve.
On the half-hour mark Van der Sar parried an effort from Lamparrd, but it fell at the feet of Duff.
The Irishman zipped past Ian Pearce and arrowed a low left-footer into the bottom left hand corner of the keeper's net from just inside the penalty area.
The Blues were keen to seal the points before the break and had a penalty appeal turned down after Lampard went down under the challenge of Barry Hayles, before Geremi went close with a free-kick.
Bizarrely coach Claudio Ranieri took off one of his stars of the first half, Jesper Gronkjaer, replacing him with Scott Parker at the break.
A lacklustre start to the second half saw little goalmouth action until the Cottagers' Pearce chose to head across goal rather than going for the target when a Davis cross found him unmarked in the middle.
In the 68th minute Chelsea could have sealed the game when Gudjohnsen fed Geremi, but the Cameroon international hit a weak, right footer from just inside the area straight into Van der Sar's hands.
Ranieri then brought Duff off for Joe Cole after the Irishman appeared to take a knock on his right knee. The Italian will also have been keen for Duff to be fit for Wednesday's Champions League clash with Arsenal.
From 75th minute corner Lampard went close to clinching the points, before Collins John unleashed a breathtaking right footer from 30 yards which was just inches away from pulling the Cottagers level.
With seconds remaining, a hopeful long ball by Sylvain Legwinski saw Ambrosio exposed and allowed Brian McBride to dart in and head the ball goalwards.
But the American's header flew over the bar and the points were Chelsea's.
Ranieri was delighted with his side's performance, commenting: "We played very well.
"Fulham were very difficult and organised, but we were focused.