Fabregas shows what Sarri wants in his Chelsea midfield

Cesc Fabregas glanced up. He took a touch to roll the ball out of his feet. He saw the run.

With one clip of his right boot, Fabregas sent the ball soaring above the helpless defenders. It dropped just over Olivier Giroud's shoulder and the Chelsea striker volleyed it into the net.

So, that's what Maurizio Sarri meant. That's what the Chelsea boss was on about when he told a room full of journalists that he wanted a 'very technical' player at the defensive centre of his midfield three.

When he said, incredibly, that he does not want N'Golo Kante - a back-to-back Premier League champion and £290,000-a-week World Cup-winning defensive midfielder - in that position.

Sarri had named two who he did want there. The first was Jorginho, the £50million summer signing, who has fulfilled that role at the start of every Premier League game this season.

A record-setter already for passes and touches. The key to this so-called Sarri-ball. Sit in front of the back four. Pass it, pass it and pass it again. Start the play, dictate the tempo.

The other name was Fabregas. And it was Fabregas who started at Stamford Bridge in Chelsea's penultimate Europa League group game against PAOK. When it comes to central midfielders, few come as technical as him.

And in this straight-forward, comfortable stroll in the park against the Greek outfit it was Fabregas who was the heart of everything that Chelsea did. The quintessential quarter-back. The most touches, the most passes.

Passes which carved open a static PAOK defence. A lofted ball of perfect weight into the path of Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The sublime cross-field ping to Pedro which set up Giroud's first goal. The ludicrous assist for the second. Passes, it has to be said, that Kante probably could not have made.

There are not many things that Kante cannot do. As a ball-winning defensive midfielder there are none better in the world. None.

When former Leicester City defender Robert Huth was asked recently how on earth a back four of himself, Wes Morgan, Danny Simpson and Christian Fuchs won the title his reply was simple: 'Kante.'

Kante was crucial, too, in helping Chelsea regain the title the following season too. But under Sarri, the new boss wants something different.

And it is for this reason that Kante is being asked by Sarri to play out wide and to attack more. And, in turn, why Kante was then criticised for his performance against Spurs when he was unable to do it to his manager's liking.

That in itself is odd. It is a bit like Paul Hollywood organising a dinner party and putting Mary Berry on the fish course. It will still taste all right, but you're selling poor Mary short, bless her.

But Fabregas's performance showed that Kante is not going to return to what many might think is his rightful position any time soon. If ever.

All of this comes with a hefty caveat. Fabregas had more time to play them here. Sarri's deep-lying architects are unlikely to be given as much time as this in the Premier League.

Jorginho certainly was not when he was marked out of the game by both Everton forward Richardson and then Tottenham's Dele Alli in Chelsea's first defeat of the season.

Results like the one at Wembley will give Sarri more concern than he will get enjoyment from watching Fabregas manifest his manager's philosophy in the deadest of dead-rubbers against a team not only bottom of their Europa League group but also with 10 men for the majority of the game.

It is instead the question of how he gets around this new belief that Chelsea have suddenly gone from unbustable Sarri-ball to one with a softer centre.

Stop Jorginho, stop Chelsea. That's what Tottenham did. There was no way PAOK were going to stop Fabregas. Man City will give it a much better go next weekend.

Perhaps Sarri will respond by playing Kante alongside Jorginho. A shift in system to two complementary midfielders.

One's endless energy and rabid ball-winning ability to help ease the pressure on Jorginho's distributing shoulders. That is unlikely. Sarri seems a stubborn so-and-so.

In that case, Kante is going to have to improve the technical side and adapt his play to be comfortable further forward and a little wider.

If he doesn't, Kante may have to endure the unthinkable and watch a few more games from the sidelines as he did here, having not been named in the match day squad. And next time, they might not just be the dead-rubbers.