From his vantage point in central defence with his team-mates attacking ahead of him, John Terry had as good a view as anyone of the football that brought 12 goals in two games.

After seven of those were scored against Aston Villa on Saturday he spoke to the club's own channel about what is working well and where there remains room for improvement.

For the earlier Portsmouth match and again against Villa, Carlo Ancelotti opted for an altered formation that operated close to a 4-3-3 with Florent Malouda and either Joe Cole, Daniel Sturridge or Salomon Kalou pushing forward down the flanks. His captain recognised the benefit.

'The formation suits us probably a little bit better with the two widemen,' Terry told Chelsea TV.

'Over the years we have had a lot of success with that. We stretch teams, especially at home, which is good because teams do come to the Bridge and sit tight.

'Even Villa did that in the first half [on Saturday]. They were playing with two wide men and with [Jon] Carew up the top on his own which restricted our full-backs going forward. It was always going to be difficult but we had seen Villa in recent weeks tiring in the later stages of games.

'They pressed us well but thankfully we scored through Lamps' penalty just before half time and the way we started both halves was key.'

One criticism of Chelsea this season is the points dropped in games when we have been in a winning position. Although Villa did equalise, it was to no avail but with some big away fixtures to come, for all Chelsea's goalscoring prowess this season that has netted six goals more in the league than any other team, Terry has a word of caution.

'We need to be more patient because at times we do go a bit gung-ho, especially away from home where we need to be tight and we need to get resilience back in the side.

'When we are at home we need to go for it and we spoke after the Portsmouth game that goals could be vital at the end of the season. On Saturday after we went to 3-1 the lads were all saying let's get a fourth, let's get a fifth.'