Though Chelsea's defence has struggled, Ferdinand believes it is the form of midfielder Nemanja Matic, playing in front of the back four, which has proved most problematic.

"Chelsea have always been a solid unit," said Ferdinand. "The protection in front of the back four has always been very good; you had Claude Makelele and Matic last season but this year Matic has lacked intensity, looked jaded and that reflects on the defence. When on form, Matic is regarded as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world and Ferdinand admitted those players are a dream to share a pitch with as a defender."

Makelele, Matic, they are players you'd love to play with," he said. "They would stop, 50, 60 percent of balls coming into the area meaning you don't have to defend. You can stay in your slot and defend you're area."

Must agree here . After seeing that Matic picked up his game things started getting better in defense . Ivanovic also got better in last match . No one is trying to find scapegoat , but Ivanovic was very awful and I think Matic was partially at fault for making it even worse for Ivanovic . Also Fabregas who completely was just walking around in defensive mid .

It's pretty clear to anyone who watches this game that a strong d-mid protects the back four to a very high degree - but I'm still of the opinion that it was a group effort that caused the general suckage we've been seeing.

A d-mid can protect the back four and clean up garbage on the top of the 18, but that doesn't account for Ivanovic getting toasted or Terry being beat. I think it's telling that the one game I've been impressed with Chelsea's D is a game Terry didn't play.

You know you are really slapping me with a bitter truth . It certainly was a better match without him than with him and against Maccabi was the same .

Terry is a fighter . He is working hard right now to make a comeback. He will make a comebacK!

Here is more to back the claim of our DM not doing what was needed .

Even though IVanovic was at fault Look at what Matic does ..

I disagree with Rio. As much as it pains me to say this, Terry is indeed the problem for us. Ivanovic was the worst individual performer in our team, yes, but Terry drags down our collective performance. I've said it a couple of times already, but Terry's lack of pace forces our back four into playing in a low block, thus creating huge gaps between the pivot of Matic and Fabregas and our defence, leaving enough space to exploit for our opponents. Most of the times we have to face teams which play counter-attacking football against us, like Everton. In these games our striker and the three attackers behind him are around the penalty area, while our back four most often stays in our own half. The huge area between these two parts of our team has to be covered by two players, with one of them being more of an attacker instead of a defender. Additionally, Azpilicueta can't go forward because Mourinho knows that Terry will get exploited if the left-back moves up to high. I also think that this was why Filipe Luis was sold - he's too attacking.

Notice how our best performances came when Terry didn't play. It started with the second half against Manchester City when he was taken off at half time. Yes, we conceded two goals, but we had to get a result and we indeed looked like a completely different side without him. The same can be said against Tel Aviv, which isn't a top side by all means, but you still see the pattern. Our defence was solid, Fabregas put in his first convincing performance of the season and our whole team was really stable and confident. The same applies to the Arsenal game, where Ivanovic looked like his old self, again, and even managed to keep Alexis quiet. Terry's time slowly comes to an end, unfortunately, but Mourinho managed to bridge the gaps that A. Cole, Lampard and Cech left, so of course I trust him to handle this situation as well, even if it looks like the biggest challenge he's faced since he came back.