The Blues had not long before equalised at home to West Ham when with 88 minutes played, Havertz was on the end of a Ben Chilwell cross. It proved to be the winner once the scare of an even-later Hammers leveller was ruled out after the referee reviewed a challenge on Edouard Mendy on the pitchside monitor.

Those two dramatic moments broke the resistance of tough London rivals and gave Chelsea a welcome boost after the scoring had gone the other way at Southampton in our previous game.

‘We knew West Ham is a good team in defending,’ Havertz said as he reflected on the success, admitting that while he watched the game from the bench prior to his 72nd-minute introduction, it looked like it was going to be a difficult afternoon.

• The full story of the match

• Watch Thomas Tuchel's take

• Who won Chelsea's goal of the month for August?

‘We knew before that maybe we do not get a lot of chances. We tried to create a lot, but it was not possible. I think we defended well and at the end we had to take the three points from this game, and we did.

‘When you don’t score but you play it is always hard,’ he said of his recent run in front of goal, ‘but I kept on believing and this goal now is even better in the last minutes so I am happy. It is good for us as a group now to get some energy and some positive vibes and these late winners are sometimes the best.’

Havertz paid tribute to Chilwell who was also a goalscoring substitute when he equalised, before setting up the Havertz chance.

‘He did a great run and these teams you have to beat with a lot of runs and a lot of intensity and Chilly did that very well.

‘The injury he had was very bad, you would not wish an injury like this on any football player. We are happy for him now he is back. He is always positive with a great attitude and he scored today a very good goal.’