Gary Cahill believes Chelsea have found a mental toughness to complement their attacking fluidity.
The England defender helped the Blues keep a third successive clean sheet in Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Sunderland.
Chelsea are the Premier League leaders and top scorers and they have eased into the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League.
Cahill factfile
DOB: 19.12.1985
England caps: 33
England goals: 3
Debut: v Bulgaria, 03.09.2010
The point at the Stadium of Light extended their unbeaten start to the season to 20 matches in all competitions.
Cahill told Chelsea TV: “I think we are a different side to last year, not just personnel, but mentally I think we are different.
“[Sunderland] made it a scrap, but we matched that and managed to play our football as well. When teams sit back and get back in that shape, it's very tough. We saw that last year and this was no different.
“But in these sorts of games, if you don't get the breakthrough, it's important we don't lose the game, and it's a point away from home.
“It was a game in which we needed to defend well. They defended well as well. It was exactly what we expected, it was a scrap of a game.
“Unfortunately for us, we didn't manage to break through. If we had broken through, it's all of a sudden a different game because like we have seen before, they have to come out then and try to get the equaliser and it allows us to play a bit more.
“But credit to them, they did well and defended as a unit.”
