It is as difficult to imagine Avram Grant in a fury as it is to picture a raging Bruce Forsyth, but the Chelsea first-team coach did blow his top at half-time yesterday. At the very least, he got quite cross. “When the players are sleeping you need to wake them up,” he said, and the late alarm call had the desired effect as Chelsea came from behind to record what was, ultimately, an easy victory.

As well as raising his voice in the interval, Grant also made the crucial decision to replace the ineffective Steve Sidwell with the far more forceful John Obi Mikel. At least we think he made the change. “The owner did it,” Grant said, before adding, helpfully, that it was a joke. Perhaps cracking them is his new year’s resolution.

With another victory confounding those Chelsea supporters who imagine Grant simply to be a stopgap before the real successor to José Mourinho arrives, the Israeli could afford to be content, although he would be well advised not to get cocky before far tougher tests in the spring.

Already without nine first-team players yesterday, he is about to lose Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou and Mikel to the African Cup of Nations. He must hope that forthcoming opponents are as lacking in punch as Fulham, who tried hard enough in front of Roy Hodgson, their new manager, but are now the Barclays Premier League’s specialists at failing to hang on to a lead.

This was Hodgson’s first game as a top-flight manager since he was dismissed by Blackburn Rovers in November 1998 and, if it is not quite a hopeless cause that he has inherited, it will soon become one unless Fulham quickly stop a run of three draws and six defeats.

They took the lead yesterday through Danny Murphy’s tenth-minute penalty, after Joe Cole had caught Moritz Volz on the ankle, but badly lacked the outlet of Brian McBride and the dash of Jimmy Bullard. Both long-term absentees could be back at the end of the month, by which time Fulham may have been cut adrift with Derby County.

Thirty of the 37 goals Fulham have conceded this season have come in the second half and they never looked capable of resisting Chelsea once it was obvious that Grant had used the interval to rouse his team from their slumbers.

“It was a bit loud in the dressing-room at half-time,” Michael Ballack said. “We could not keep playing like that. We put more pressure on Fulham from the first minute.”

Replacing Sidwell with Mikel allowed Essien to move into a more attacking midfield position and, in turn, that gave Ballack the chance to be more influential. “Everything was wrong in the first half,” Grant said. “We didn’t play well, we lost too many passes. We needed to control the midfield better and we did that.”

Chelsea drew level nine minutes after half-time, when Juliano Belletti’s corner was headed back across the area by Alex. Kalou rose to nod from close range past Antti Niemi. The Ivory Coast striker might have scored earlier had he shown even a passing acquaintance with the offside law.

The lead for Chelsea came in the 62nd minute when Clint Dempsey, finding himself defending on the wrong side of Ballack, lightly tugged at the Germany player’s sleeve. It was not the sort of contact normally required to fell a hulking athlete but Ballack, as the world knows, is remarkably easy to knock over when in or around the penalty area.

Captain in the absence of John Terry and Frank Lampard, Ballack stepped up to take the spot-kick and, having dispatched the winner into the bottom corner, he also left with the man-of-the-match champagne. Not a bad haul from his first full 90 minutes after a long-term ankle injury and, to cap it all, the Chelsea supporters were even singing his name by the final whistle.

“Ballack cannot be at his best after eight months out and with three games in a short time, but he’s doing well,” Grant said. “We have some leaders in this team and he’s one of them. And I like intelligent footballers.”

Fulham did not have an attempt on goal worth mentioning in the last 20 minutes, although Hodgson managed to find some positives. “Our first-half performance was really quite good,” he said. “Even when we went 2-1 down, there was no lack of fight or spirit.”

For his part, Grant resisted the temptation to mention the occasion when a certain Portuguese manager came to Craven Cottage, in March 2006, and watched a similarly lifeless opening by Chelsea. Mourinho responded by hauling off Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips after less than half an hour but could not stop Chelsea slumping to their only defeat by Fulham in the past 28 years.

There was a far happier outcome yesterday thanks to a spot of tinkering and a few harsh words. “I can break a chair if I need to,” Grant said. “If everybody is nervous you have to be calm. If people are sleeping, then you have not to be calm.”

He has lost only twice in 23 matches as Chelsea first-team coach, although, coming against Manchester United and Arsenal, they were hardly insignificant defeats.

Fulham (4-4-2): A Niemi — E Omozusi, C Bocanegra, D Stefanovic, P Konchesky — M Volz (sub: Seol Ki Hyeon, 68min), S Davis (sub: A Smertin, 70), D Murphy, S Davies — D Kamara (sub: D Healy, 77), C Dempsey. Substitutes not used: A Warner, S Kuqi. Booked: Stefanovic.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Hilário — J Belletti, Alex, T Ben Haim, W Bridge — S Sidwell (sub: J O Mikel 45), M Essien, M Ballack — S Wright-Phillips (sub: C Pizarro, 88), S Kalou, J Cole (sub: P Ferreira, 90). Substitutes not used: R Taylor, S Sinclair.

Referee: M Halsey.