Michael Essien, a two-goal hero in Saturday's win, saw promising signs for both Chelsea's immediate and longer-term future.

The Ghanaian's 11th minute header and 21st minute low shot that made it 3-0 so early on gave him his best goal tally in a single Chelsea game and earned praise from Carlo Ancelotti. It was only the width of the crossbar that prevented a hat-trick in the second half.

However in typically understated and modest Essien words, he preferred to talk of the team as a whole rather than his goals.

'It is always good to win and we play Arsenal very soon and this will boost our confidence,' he said after the 4-0 victory over Wolves, a record 12th straight win at Stamford Bridge.

'It is always good to get new records and that will boost our confidence as well.

'We put on a great show. We got our three goals very early in the game and we did not give up, we kept going and we managed to keep focused.'

One of the most pleasing aspects of the match was that shorn of Essien's regular midfield colleagues, Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack, and without the huge presence of Didier Drogba upfront, the team selected still put on one of the performances of the season.

With John Mikel Obi coming back after two months out, Essien was untied from the midfield anchor.

'For me personally, I don't mind where I am asked to play but there was a formation change and I was asked to play more attacking than defending. It is part of my game and wherever I am asked to play, I try to do my job for the team.

'I did try my luck but I could not get my hat-trick but the most important thing was we got three points.'

Given the changes made before the game, and the second-half substitutions of Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka, at 26-years-old Essien was one of the oldest of the players flooding forwardby the end of the match. He saw plenty to praise in the cameo appearances by Fabio Borini, Gael Kakuta and Nemanja Matic.

'It is great to have some young ones coming up and they put in some good shows this game. They show how big our squad is and we have a good future with the young ones.

'You could see that Kakuta is a very good player. He has a long way to go and he has a great future with Chelsea so hopefully he can keep going like that and get into the first team.'

You can hear from Gael Kakuta in 'Monday Night Review' on Chelsea TV from 6.15pm.