Palace defended valiantly for much of the afternoon as the hosts dominated the ball, but a second-half Lauren James strike secured Chelsea a 25th win in 27 games this season and kept them on track to win a historic quadruple.
Chelsea thrashed Palace 7-0 when the sides met in the Women’s Super League back in September, but this time around Sonia Bompastor’s side had to show patience as they chipped away at their opponents.
James and Aggie Beever-Jones missed clear chances to score in the first-half, before the latter’s would-be opener was ruled out for offside.
The home side ramped up the pressure in the second half but were again denied by the assistant referee’s flag, with Erin Cuthbert – lying on the turf in an offside position – judged to be interfering with play when Catarina Macario smashed into the roof of the net from close range.
Substitutes Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Mayra Ramirez both spurned great opportunities with Palace camped inside their own penalty area, before James volleyed into the bottom corner in the 64th minute to break the visitors’ resistance.
Chelsea will host Liverpool in the semi-finals on 13 April, with the winner facing either Manchester City or Manchester United in the final at Wembley on 18 May.
Bompastor’s side now turn their attention to next weekend’s Subway Cup final against Man City, before facing the same opponent in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and in the WSL.
Earlier this week, Bompastor admitted that her side have not been their fluid selves of late, but on Sunday their dominance was clear.
Chelsea enjoyed 59% possession and registered 21 shots compared to Palace’s two, but for 63 minutes they could not turn that dominance into a tangible advantage.
The home side were remarkably wasteful in their finishing, with James, Beever-Jones, Catarina Macario and Rytting Kaneryd all guilty of missing the target when left completely unmarked inside the box.
“We created a lot of chances from a lot of players and we probably could have done better,” Bompastor told BBC Sport.
While a tad unfortunate to have Macario’s second-half strike ruled out for offside, Bompastor will be only too aware that her side must be more clinical in the coming weeks.
Saturday’s Subway Cup final will be the first of four successive meetings with Manchester City in the space of 12 days.
Though Chelsea appear to be cruising to a sixth-consecutive league title, the Champions League is the prize they desire most.
Should they get past City in the quarter-finals they will face either reigning European champions Barcelona or 2022-23 runners up Wolfsburg, both sides that will punish them if they do not convert their own chances.
“We’ve changed some players in the squad but things take time in football, so for us to be in this position [along with] all that we have achieved from the beginning of the season is a positive and gives us a lot of confidence,” said Bompastor.
“But we haven’t won anything yet so we must keep the right mindset and work hard to have trophies at the end of the season.”
Palace meanwhile can take encouragement despite a second successive 1-0 loss under new manager Leif Smerud.
It was always going to be a tall order for them to survive 90 minutes of pressure, especially with their injury issues and the absences of loanees Lexi Potter and Aniek Nouwen, both ineligible to face their parent club. In the end it was only a quality finish that proved their undoing.
The Eagles sit bottom of the WSL and are four points adrift of safety with seven games left to play. If Smerud can find a way to make his side more effective in attack, they might have a chance to escape.
