Chalobah's third goal for the Eagles, and his first at Selhurst Park, inspired a comeback after Palace had fallen behind to an early Southampton goal.
He had to survive a nervy VAR check before he could properly celebrate - to see if there was any illegal contact between Jean-Philippe Mateta and Aaron Ramsdale - but the defender said after the win he always expected the goal to be given.
"It's a massive win," Chalobah told Premier League Productions. "Obviously coming off a tough game against Bournemouth, we did say we wanted to finish off the year with a win and that's what we've done.
"We didn't start the game well, we were a bit 'stand-offish' - but that goal really woke us up. After that we created a lot of chances, particularly in the first-half. We needed that to wake us up. But luckily we got the three points.
"I'm just trying to chip in here and there, but yeah, as a defender, it's important to get clean sheets, obviously we didn't get that today, but it's nice to chip in the goals as well.
