“That’s why we’re champions,” crowed the Matthew Harding Stand after César Azpilicueta had bundled Chelsea back from the precipice. Their meaning was clear enough: you do not win titles without the wherewithal to make light of a seemingly lost cause and the way that – invigorated by Antonio Conte’s substitutions – they punished Watford in the last 20 minutes brought to mind some of last season’s remorseless displays.

It would be equally accurate, though, to say that a repeat performance seems some way off and the prospect would have receded into the distance had their excellent opponents killed them off during a blistering spell early in the second half. At that stage Watford, niggly off the ball but so purposeful with it, were ripping Chelsea apart at will and they will regret the 53rd-minute header that Richarlison, who was to the fore throughout, planted wide from in front of the posts at 2-1 up.

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Richarlison had missed an even more glaring opportunity just after half-time but instantly made amends to set up Roberto Pereyra, who duly scored Watford’s second. Better aim upon meeting Miguel Britos’s cross would have deepened the October gloom for Chelsea; instead the pendulum swung decisively, Azpilicueta’s 87th-minute goal coming between two sharp finishes from the substitute Michy Batshuayi.

None of those efforts could hold a candle to the one that set Chelsea off and running, at which point it seemed this might be the kind of victory that dulls talk of second-season syndrome, recruitment failures and disquiet at players’ workloads. Watford, looking like a team happy to trouble Chelsea on their own terms after picking up 10 points on the road, had started well but could do nothing about the whipped, first-time 25-yarder from Pedro that left Heurelho Gomes standing as it pinged in off his far post. The short corner that bred the opening should not have been awarded, Eden Hazard clearly running the ball out of play, but Watford’s inattention in such situations would become a theme. Besides, Chelsea hardly cared: after two straight league defeats a stroke of either luck or brilliance would have done, and here they had both.

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Had Cesc Fàbregas opted for something more conventional than an attempted dink over Gomes, easily repelled, when supplied by Álvaro Morata, the afternoon’s fluctuations could have been avoided. Instead Watford, aided by Richarlison’s ability to win free-kicks but also by the strength and poise of Abdoulaye Doucouré in midfield, came again and deserved their equaliser. It arrived after David Luiz, heading a long throw against an unwitting Tiémoué Bakayoko, set the ball bobbling in the area and Doucouré finished without ceremony.

Half-time followed immediately but, while the equaliser complicated Conte’s team talk, the Chelsea manager could hardly have imagined the spell that would follow. He suggested afterwards that their defending, horribly loose and ill-disciplined, owed partly to a lack of time to prepare during a hectic schedule. That might not sufficiently explain the chaotic way in which their backline – a stumbling Gary Cahill among them– gave chase to Richarlison before the Brazilian freed Pereyra. Rarely, even in the depths of their 2015-16 season, have they looked this ragged at Stamford Bridge.

Their rivals will have noted those issues but, at the same time, the manner of their comeback should not be ignored. Conte appeared to switch Chelsea to a 4-4-2 after Batshuayi’s introduction although, against visual evidence, he later said their approach had hardly changed. Either way it seemed a risk to deploy the Belgium striker – one of many to disappoint at Crystal Palace and visibly unhappy upon his withdrawal that afternoon – in place of Morata and when an early loss of possession brought groans from the home crowd the die appeared to have been cast.

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But the noise was rather different when Batshuayi got across Britos to head an excellent Pedro delivery across Gomes after the visitors again switched off at a short set play and suddenly there was a sense that Chelsea were off the hook, especially after Christian Kabasele passed up on a presentable Watford chance, nodding straight at Courtois.

Azpilicueta’s goal, which came almost unwittingly after a cross from another substitute, Willian, had flicked sharply off Kabasele, was no huge surprise when it came. Batshuayi, finishing confidently after latching onto a Bakayoko header, completed the comeback to give the score a flattering hue.

That was certainly the opinion of Marco Silva, the Watford manager, and Chelsea will continue to stumble through this most unforgiving of schedules if they do not find a way to tighten up. Reigning champions do not generally concede seven goals in a week but they do, as here, tend to muster the odd reminder of what has made them great.