Cesc Fabregas calls for Chelsea stars to earn their money

Mahrez scored what proved to be the winning goal in Leicester’s 2-1 victory at home to embattled Premier League champions Chelsea on Monday.

There will be whispers, shakes of heads, rolls of eyes, but the 52-year-old Portuguese has brought it all on himself, and his brutal assessment of Chelsea’s failing players will be regarded as the beginning of the end.

The floundering Premier League champions are only one point above the relegation zone after Monday’s ninth defeat of the season, at Leicester.

Sacking manager Jose Mourinho midway through the season will serve no objective, former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has said.

“I worked for four days on this match”, he told the Chelsea website.

“We concede two goals that are unacceptable for me”. In 16 matches played Chelsea has a horribly balance sheet considering the value of the batch of its players: 9 defeats, 3 draws and just 4 wins.

Mourinho, in his second spell in charge of Chelsea, was given Abramovich’s public backing in October, but domestic results have not improved since. “I don’t think in this moment [Chelsea players] can feel they are top players or they can feel they are superstars”.

“They are good players, but far too many of them are under-performing and they have been for a while”, he told Sky Sports. But the Leicester City manager has put his foot down and said that no club can buy them. But even if they get lucrative offers from top-tier European clubs next month, Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri said that they will not sell their stars. The Algeria global said that he is aware of the possibility of getting lucrative deals elsewhere, but he insisted that he is determined to finish the season with Leicester City. “Clearly yes”, he said.

“The best thing for me would be to stay. I accept we are around the relegation zone, I don’t accept we are in a relegation battle”.

Under-fire Jose Mourinho is back at Chelsea to take training as his future remains in the balance.

“We can’t finish top four, but we can still finish top six because so many teams are dropping points”.

“I have to believe he is injured”.

So for the current strugglers, history repeating itself would see three of them relegated and one ending up top of the Premier League a year from now.