Chelsea Under-21s went into this international break in good form after back-to-back wins with 10 goals scored and none conceded, and head coach Filipe Coelho believes that showed a growing maturity from the team.

There have been highs and lows for the eldest Academy side during the early part of the season, but there have been some impressive performances, especially in the week leading up to the October international break.

A first win in this season's Premier League International Cup in midweek, beating Anderlecht 4-0, was followed up by a comprehensive 6-0 Premier League 2 victory over Fulham, the side responsible for arguably the lowest point of last season, when we were knocked out of the Premier League Cup semi-finals 4-0.

Unsurprisingly, those two results left Coelho pleased with how the team is shaping up three months into his first campaign with the Blues.

'Obviously I'm happy because of the final results, not only against Fulham but also against Anderlecht,' he said. 'It gave us a chance to show what we've been doing since the last break.

'We are making chances, we lead the league in shots on goal, but before last week we weren't clinical to score with all the chances we were creating. The team needed to make connections and they are now more unselfish boys.

'They understand that they will create more chances and more quality if they believe in the collective with a team mentality. It all came together in the Fulham match, with six goals all scored by different players. It shows they are understanding the message and creating good chances.

'Of course I'm happy for the result, but there are still many things to improve because we are an aggressive team with the ball. We are brave, we like to play in the last third with many bodies in the box, so it is important to play the game with the structure behind the ball. The communication and leadership is crucial to our style of play. We were very good in the second half, in the first half there were some things to solve.'

That was clear from the fact that all six of our goals against Fulham arrived after half-time, although according to Coelho the crucial difference between the two 45 minutes came off the ball.

'At half-time we spoke about how we should be more structured behind the ball because we were creating, had a very good first half, but Fulham had some important transitions and in some moments they overloaded our back line.

'We were creating so much in the first half but unfortunately we didn't score, but it was more about the way the players were structured behind the ball to allow our last-third connections to be more secure.

'When you create so much you know you are going to lose the ball, so you have to be ready, and in the second half we were in a better formation to deal with that. Also the way we counter-pressed aggressively allowed us to create even more chances and the connections they created finally resulted in goals.'

However, as much as any tactical changes, Coelho explained why work done at the training ground to help the young players handle set-backs and disappointment better mentally has been crucial to the prolific form Chelsea showed in the week before the break.

'It's important to work on their mentality because in previous matches we were creating but felt the players were not responding in a good way emotionally if they didn't score.

'We saw in their body language the frustration because we were not clinical enough to score and that was influencing in a bad way our next action.

'We talked and worked with them on that kind of situation, explained that we are going to create chances but need to deal emotionally with the moments when we're not scoring, to keep doing the same good things and fight again for the next chance.

'In the first half against Fulham we were creating but unfortunately not being clinical, but the boys kept going with a good mentality and energy to create the next chance, which all came out in the second half.'