Unsuitable Fabregas lost his place at Chelsea fc

Cesc Fabregas has only started one Premier League game for Chelsea this season

Cesc Fabregas has lost his place at Chelsea and he is not involved in the Spain squad to face England on Tuesday night. Here, we look at why he has fallen out of favour under Antonio Conte and assess his chances of winning back his place in the team...

Chelsea's recent ascendancy has received plenty of coverage but the numbers bear repeating Since October, they have won five consecutive Premier League games, scoring 16 goals without conceding and climbing from eighth to second in the table. After the chaos of last season, optimism is flooding back to Stamford Bridge.

 The switch to a 3-4-3 formation has been the catalyst. Antonio Conte's three-man defence is flanked by hard-running wing-backs Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso and protected by midfield duo N'Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic, and the forward line of Eden Hazard, Pedro and Diego Costa are freed up and running riot at the other end.

  It's a winning formula, but it has left Cesc Fabregas on the fringes. It's unfamiliar territory for a player who has averaged 46 appearances per season since 2004. Fabregas played a starring role in Chelsea's 2014/15 title triumph and featured in all but one of their Premier League games last year, but he has started only once under Conte. It's thrown his future into doubt.
Conte insists Fabregas remains in his plans, but there are big question marks over his suitability to the new manager's style. His single Premier League start was a case in point. He struggled badly in a three-man midfield against Arsenal. His old club exposed Chelsea's soft centre to go 3-0 up before half-time, and Fabregas suffered the ignominy of a 55th-minute substitution.
The question  remains