Chelsea's Joe Cole has set his sights on becoming the polished provider in Carlo Ancelotti's diamond system.

Cole scored his first goal for 13 months in yesterday's 4-0 drubbing of Wolves at Stamford Bridge.

He completed a rout started by Florent Malouda's fifth-minute 20-yarder and a double from Michael Essien inside 22 minutes.

The win set a new club record of 12 consecutive wins and their 10th clean sheet at home equalled a best set in 1927.

Cole's strike was well deserved for a player who had fought back to full fitness after 10 months out with knee ligament damage sustained against Southend in the FA Cup last January.

The player is determined to earn a place in Fabio Capello's England World Cup squad next summer and the Italian must surely have been impressed by yesterday's display.

Cole is relishing the chance to play behind the front two strikers at Chelsea - a role he must fight for against rejuvenated Portuguese veteran Deco.

Injury ruled Deco out of the game against Wolves and Cole seized another chance to impress both Ancelotti and Capello.

Now the midfielder wants to become the pivotal part of Ancelotti's diamond system as the Blues look to finish top of Group D in the Champions League with a win over Porto on Wednesday night.

"I love it in the middle," said Cole. "I think the main focus is to perform, wherever you are playing.

"Good players can play in several positions and I found that I had the ability to play right, left or centre and that's because I can do a broad range of things for the team - cross the ball, pass it through the middle, beat a man.

"Because of these things I have tended to get moved around a little bit. But now I've got back in the centre, which is more natural to me, I'm hoping to cement that place and make it my own.

"I've had a blinding start. I just try and play well in every game and let the manager take care of who starts matches.

"I just need to carry on going and keep playing well. I've had a blinding start and I feel well. It is hard being injured, there are lots of things you miss but what can you do?

"It is part and parcel with being a player. Life isn't plain sailing and you go through peaks and troughs, but you miss playing football when you can't, that's for sure.

"I don't think I am far away from being back to my old self, which is good, and I've just got to keep myself level-headed about everything."

While Cole celebrated his goalscoring return, Wolves boss Mick McCarthy was preparing himself for next week's clash with midlands rivals Birmingham.

Wolves remain entrenched in the bottom three and facing a real fight for survival - a fact McCarthy made clear to his players after their defeat.

"We understood that we might get a few hidings over the course of the season and we've had two on the bounce, said McCarthy. "But I don't worry about how we rebound from it at all.

"The players knew this would be a difficult and the Birmingham game will be different, that's for sure.

"The impetus goes when you're three up but they got another. It was all about damage limitation - they've never conceded four to a newly-promoted side, or I doubt it, so it was just about not getting beat six or seven.

"But we might as well realise that we are in a relegation dogfight, no question. With all the games we have left, that's the situation we're in, we can't hide away from it and say 'we are doing okay'.

"We look like a team that can get relegated. If you don't understand the difference between that and just being in the relegation zone, then I don't know whether I should explain it.

"Everton were down in the bottom three for a while but they didn't look like a team that was going to get relegated to me.

"Let us understand where we are, we are in the bottom three."

McCarthy refused to say whether he would be given any money to strengthen his squad in the January transfer window.

"I don't discuss money," he added.