In a season where it feels as though talking up Chelsea’s attack and talking down their defence could become regular and unshakeable themes, their first win in four Premier League games was all about their midfield.

They failed in their latest bid to belatedly end their chronic run without a league clean sheet — up to 22 straight games now — and yet they were never in serious threat of failing to win on an afternoon where they led 2-0 after a mere two minutes and 29 seconds and eventually closed out a handsome 5-1 victory, their best yet of the Xabi Alonso era.

It was an afternoon in which Chelsea were blessed to have Moises Caicedo finally back fit and able to split the centre-backs, offer another passing lane, commit fully to tackling, and showcase his wide passing range. “We are all happier when we see Moi on the pitch,” Alonso had said on Friday when declaring Caicedo, Joao Pedro, Cole Palmer, Reece James and Marco Palestra back fit for this game.

James, though, suffered a small injury in training the day before the game and was unavailable, and that left a midfield slot alongside Caicedo up for grabs. Alonso’s somewhat surprising call was to start Jordan Henderson ahead of Romeo Lavia, who shone for Belgium over the international break.

An inspired selection decision, as it turned out — and it began to pay off in no time at all. Henderson was Chelsea’s standout performer, and by the third minute he had both scored and assisted. The stunning opener was swept into the corner in a single touch, the sort of contact on the ball we have come to expect from Henderson, whose cultured strike was a symbol of his calming presence on the pitch.

He was everywhere, tackling, blocking, offering himself to teammates and passing the ball on. And when everyone in Stamford Bridge was expecting Cole Palmer to strike at goal with a second-half free-kick, it was instead Henderson who strolled up and curled into the top corner, darting away to celebrate with a finger pointing at Palmer by way of thanks and then the finger angled towards Austin MacPhee, Chelsea’s set-piece coach.

Henderson is 36 years of age and was brought in to add leadership and experience on and off the pitch. A performance quite this exceptional was surely beyond even the hopes of Chelsea’s hierarchy. Did Chelsea sign him for his goals? “We signed him for everything,” Alonso said after full-time.

Alongside him, Caicedo was fierce in the tackle and also an integral part of Chelsea’s big win — though the Ecuadorian could not claim to have been leading man. That was Henderson, who covered more distance than anyone on the pitch for either side.

There were long passages of play on a sunlit afternoon at the Bridge where it did absolutely look like this was a team gearing up for midweek European football against a team who don’t have the pleasure. Except their roles were reversed.

Chelsea are keen not to overload Caicedo and cause him to suffer further injury so took no risks and replaced him after 72 minutes. Romeo Lavia, on in his place, took the baton and kept nibbling at the heels of Bournemouth players, disrupting play and turning the ball over and keeping the intensity high on an afternoon when Chelsea never letting up was as much the route to their success as anything else.

Henderson was the embodiment of that. It was Morgan Rogers, scorer of Chelsea’s second, who was the first to sprint over the Henderson to celebrate that opening goal with him. Rogers and Jude Bellingham were sat together in a joint interview during the World Cup when Rogers declared Henderson “probably the best person I've ever met in football”.

Alonso, speaking on Friday, said: “I think a lot about blocks of games between breaks. Now we have five Premier League games, three home, two away. We feel in certain areas we have not been able to build stability — now we want to build stability, patterns, to repeat things that will give us this platform for the future.”

And the captain James and Valentin Barco are still to come in and challenge for places. After so greatly an improved performance from the midfield, you’re left fearing for the Chelsea future of someone like Dario Essugo, and for Everton in the lunchtime kick-off next Saturday.