Cesc Fabregas calls on Chelsea players to earn their wages as midfielder says squad must 'do better' for Jose Mourinho

Fabregas has been one of Chelsea's out-of-form players this season and he has admitted that every member of Mourinho's side must up their game

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Cesc Fabregas has ordered his Chelsea team-mates to start earning their large wages after their latest defeat by Leicester left them 20 points off the top of the Premier League and in the middle of a relegation battle.

Fabregas has come in for heavy criticism this season and has been dropped from the Chelsea first-team by manager Jose Mourinho for their last two matches, with the midfielder being left on the bench for the win over Porto in the Champions League before coming on as a second-half substitute in the 2-1 loss at Leicester.

Mourinho faces serious questions surrounding his future at Stamford Bridge, with the defending Premier League champion languishing down in 16th in the table, and Fabregas has called on all of the squad – including himself – to take the responsibility of their poor form and start showing the right attitude to every one of their remaining matches.

"We all have to take responsibility. If you are a big player and you are paid like a big player, you must play like a big player and behave like a big player," Fabregas said in an interview at Facebook’s UK headquarters.

"I am not saying you can't have a bad season and bad games. We all have - big players and small players. But the attitude has to always be spot on. We must always be at the top of our games, and the behaviour has to be better than what we are seeing right now from every single Chelsea player."

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The 28-year-old, who joined Chelsea from Barcelona at the start of last season in a £30m deal, believes that the players need to put where they will finish out of their minds and start focusing on their next match alone, starting with this weekend’s visit of Sunderland to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea can ill-afford to slip up against the Blacks Cats as defeat would leave them exposed to dropping into the relegation zone should Swansea and Norwich pick up victories of their own, and Fabregas admits that every member of the Blues’ squad must “do better” even if their hopes of retaining the Premier League are dead in the water.

"We cannot win the Premier League right now, but come on, we all have to do better," Fabregas added.

"Right now is not the time to think of where we might finish, we've been saying it nearly all season.

"I just think I want to beat Sunderland, play my best and that's it. Right now, no one is easy as it shows. We've put ourselves in this position so we have to now prove - we really, really, really have to now start winning."