Florent Malouda hopes that the 7-2 trashing of Sunderland will stop critics from claiming that Chelsea are a boring side.

Despite having Didier Drogba and Michael Essien away on international duty in Angola, the Blues have proven that they can outscore anyone with 12 goals in their two games in 2010.

Carlo Ancelotti's new diamond formation in midfield which many thought would mean the Blues will have a very congested midfield has proven to be very effective with Malouda seemingly enjoying his new position which saw him score two goals against the Black Cats.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, the French winger said: "Sometimes people are speaking about 'boring Chelsea', but we are changing their minds and showing that we have quality too.

"I would say that even last season, when we were playing games against teams like Barcelona, we were not boring at all.

"All you ever get, though, is people speaking about our physical strengths.

"But we have quality too and we are trying to show it. We can't control the comments but we can control the way we perform.

"Everybody can see that we are a happy team now. We are working hard and we are seeing that we are getting a result from our work.

"Every game, we try to play with positive ambition, trying to play football all the time and tasking risks.

"We are improving our passing game in the last third of the pitch, so it's all good.

"Sometimes we miss, but always we are trying to put our team-mate in the best position and maybe that's the difference. We are less selfish in front of the goal.

"All of us feel that the way we played against Sunderland was just the start.

"You never know what can happen, but this period and the discipline we have and are showing, mean we can achieve great things."

Despite sitting comfortably at the top, Malouda warned his team-mates to continue working hard to prevent any slip-ups.

He added: "Of course, we mustn't be over-confident. The final sprint hasn't started yet but we are in a good position, we just want to be in that position at the end of the season. We just have to relax, work hard and never be too sloppy.

"Even when you start the season well, you know will be a moment when you drop points.

"The key thing is you have to drop less points than your opponents.

"We have been watching our opponents drop points last week too, and that's why we are still in this position. This season it will be really tight, and maybe the difference will be goal difference.

"That is maybe a detail at the moment, but at the end of the season it could make a big difference.

"We are not trying to show our rivals anything, we are just trying to work on our strengths.

"But we are confident, we know what we can do, we are not wasting any time talking about the opponents and what they will or won't deal.

"We are trying to play the way we want to play and we are getting the results we deserve.

"The quality we have, and the spirit we have, the way we work hard - we have reason to be confident and we don't want to spend time speaking about other teams."

Chelsea received news from Angola that star midfielder Michael Essien is down with an injury which could rule him out for weeks to come.

Their next league game will be against Alex McLeish's Birmingham side.