It was not convincing and Enzo Maresca will continue to emphasize that his team stays far away from a Champions League recovery.
But after the Chelsea head coach recently complained the preference on his side for the slipping of leads, he will have taken faith of how they fought against a grim West Ham to go to the fourth.
With an hour past, it seemed that Irons -Baas Graham Potter would enjoy sweet redemption against the club that fired him after seven difficult months.
Jarrod Bowen had put them in the front in the first half when Chelsea again had trouble being clinical.
But a quartet of substitutions early in the second half alongside Cole Plemer's constant sparkle, the derby turned around.
Pedro Neto shot the level home from a rebound before Palmer danced his way to the penalty area and forced his own goal of the unfortunate Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
The shape of West Ham was perhaps conservative, but they pressed hungry with both Bowen and Mohamed Kudus who came forward at the sniff of Chelsea Dawdling.
And the sight of Filip Jorgensen, who has replaced mistakes -sensitive Robert Sanchez in the home goal, wrongly checking an early pass offered visitors of the opinion that they could take advantage.
Bowen, back after five weeks from a broken base, offered the first attempt by the game on Target when trying out his luck from an acute perspective that Jorgensen had treated.
But Chelsea always looked more creative, even when 45 minutes passed before Alphonse Areola made a salvation.
Palmer was blocked by Vladimir Coufal before Noni Madueke struck a whisker wide after a smart by Bal by Nicolas Jackson.
Palmer drilled out of the reach, Enzo Fernandez tried his luck and Aaron Cresswell cut out a Jadon Sancho Center when several stood in Blue in line.
Yet frustrations were visibly built at home in the neighborhood of the interval when Kudus brought a savings from Jorgensen and Sancho at the other end was high and wide.
Then Bowen's Loopkel came.
Areola has beaten a long pass for Tomas Soucek to hit Kudus and Levi Colwill.
But half of the Chelsea center could not handle the pressure and sent a weak pass in his left flank for Bowen to gratefully intercept.
His finish was a beauty stitched in the right corner.
Areola was called in an extra time in a meaningful look by getting a strong hand for a Palmer-free staircase that looked destined for the top right corner.
A little later the French stop smothered a Palmer shot.
Emerson and Cresswell both have the first time before Maresca Neto, Marc Guiu and Christopher Nunku introduced on a Her arrest attack.
And Neto leveled when he drove a rebound home after the attempt by Enzo Fernandez was blocked by Wan-Bissaka.
Kudus directed a free header of the post – although he would be sidelined – while West Ham pushed to take the lead again.
But all their hard work was undone by not closing Palmer down, because his flash took a great deflection of Wan-Bissaka over the goal and the ball over areola and rotating inside.
Kudus saw an attempt to mitigate blocked blocked four minutes in extra time.
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