But Fulham should then have taken the lead with a clever first-time pass from Pajtim Kasami, splitting the Chelsea defence, finding Gary Cahill woefully on his heels and exposed, and sending Darren Bent clear on goal.
He steadied himself but his shot was too deliberate and Petr Cech blocked. He had to score.
As, naturally, Chelsea's dominance of possession grew so Fulham were pushed back. They remained composed but there was a scare when Eto'o cut inside on his right foot only for his shot to be deflected into the side-netting with Stockdale wrong-footed and another as Eden Hazard was bumped into by Sascha Riether inside the penalty area. No penalty was given.
Mourinho interchanged the trio behind Eto'o, with Hazard moving into the centre, but Fulham — with Scott Parker and Sidwell in front of the central defence — remained organised although Stockdale did then flap at a corner which only just skimmed over the onrushing Cahill.
Another corner was earned, after Ramires was crowded out, his shot also taking a deflection, following Eto's header across goal. From it Stockdale, unconvincingly again, palmed the ball out to Hazard whose half-volley was screwed wide.
Fulham's threat, on the break, was clear with Duff, in particular, prominent and Sidwell and Parker — to complete that trio of old boys at the Bridge — also figuring against an increasingly uninspired Chelsea approach which was summed up by Hazard shooting weakly across goal when things opened up and he had the chance to create something more meaningful.
The watching Roman Abramovich could not have been impressed while Mourinho remained seated before, finally, a strong opportunity was fashioned for Ivanovic. The ball pin-balled across the area and ran to the full-back whose powerful first-time effort was beaten out by Stockdale with his legs only to ricochet off Kieran Richardson for a corner. From it Hazard's half-hearted shot was blocked and there was, at half-time, the mildest chorus of boos once more.
The urge for change was resisted but there was certainly a raising of the tempo as Chelsea pushed on after the interval. They need to quickly try and break this deadlock and provide some relief and it finally came through, inevitably, a Stockdale fumble. Hazard broke forward and slipped a pass to Andre Schurrle whose shot was bundled back into play by Stockdale who only palmed Eto's scuffed, deflected follow-up effort into Oscar's path. He found the net and Chelsea's advantage was as fortuitous as it was undeserved.
From a floated free-kick by Kasami, Fulham should have quickly drawn level. The ball drifted over the Chelsea defenders to Sidwell who headed wide when, again, he should have scored. He wiped his face in disbelief.
Eto'o soon departed – with Fernando Torres' arrival cheered deeply. Will the fears now grow, after another unconvincing performance by the 32-year-old Cameroonian striker, that here is another Andrei Shevchenko, another Torres for Chelsea? Certainly that central striker's berth, a replacement for Didier Drogba, has become, to say the least, difficult to fill.
No-one could fault Fulham's work-rate or their desire but having missed two such good opportunities to score they appear to lose a little belief also. There were more howls for a Chelsea penalty as Ramires was up-ended (or did he make the most of the challenge?) and then Stockdale pushed over Torres' near post header. From the corner, John Obi Mikel hooked the ball home acrobatically. Astonishingly it was his first goal in 261 games while Cech beat out Richardson's drive to preserve a clean sheet.
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