Newcastle United legend and BBC pundit Alan Shearer reckons that Chelsea were certainly not helped by the lack of defensive support from Cesc Fabregas in the recent 3-0 loss against Manchester City.

Chelsea suffered this immense setback against their title rivals in only the fourth match of the season. The team failed to start the season with a win after only drawing against Swansea on the opening day, and hav stuttered for form since.

The performances of Fabregas have come under the radar once again, as the Spaniard has not been able to match his high standards set at the same stage last season.

Ever since the turn of the year, the 28-year-old has not been at his best. José Mourinho has been criticised for not clearly defining the role of Fabregas. He has been playing alongside Nemanja Matic as part of the two defensive midfielders. However, he is also expected to contribute in attack due to his exceptional passing skills, which have not been coming up of late.

This, in turn, has exposed his weakness on the defensive front. It remains to be seen if Fabregas will be dropped for a specialist defensive midfielder like Ramires or John obi Mikel. However, Mourinho may also see City has been one of the best attacking forces out there and it was simply a case of being overpowered by the opposition. Even befoer the match Manchester City had shorter odds (on the contemporary odds website) of winning the title than Chelsea.

“When these two teams last met, at Stamford Bridge in January, Blues boss Jose Mourinho played Ramires in defensive midfield alongside Nemanja Matic and successfully killed the game."

"With Ramires back in the team, that is what I thought would happen this time too, with Chelsea set up to sit and defend and stay tight. Fabregas did not look like he knew whether he was meant to be an attacking midfielder or a defensive one. He ended up being neither,” said Shearer.