In Saturday's big matchup with Manchester City, Chelsea went into battle without two major players.

One of Diego Costa, who leads the team in scoring but was suspended for a violent act in a previous match. The second was arguably the more important of the two -- Spain's Cesc Fabregas.

The Spaniard was sent packing from Barcelona this past summer, a move the Catalan team regretted during its poor run of form in November and early December. And why wouldn't they? While Barcelona tried to figure out its midfield play, Fabregas was dominating the Premier League in Chelsea's blue.

And while Fabregas may not miss another game, his absence brings up a huge question : How vital is the Spaniard to Chelsea?

Traditional numbers tell a major story. The Spaniard has only scored two goals in England (tied for ninth on the team), but he leads the squad with 15 assists; Oscar comes in second with seven helpers in a little over 300 minutes of less playing time than his teammate. And after them comes Eden Hazard, who has eight goals and five assists in more minutes played than either Oscar or Fabregas.

But Fabregas brings a lot more to the table and the sign of a great set up man is his passing. And Fabregas is among the best in nearly every passing category. He is sixth in passing success rate at 86.8 percent. Among the forwards and midfielders, only Hazard, Nemanja Matic and John Obi Mikel have better numbers; Mikel has only played in 465 minutes so added time should regress him toward his career average. Fabregas leads the team in key passes, with 3.2 per game and averages far more passes than any other player on the team with 86; Matic comes second with 67.1. This indicates Fabregas' importance over Chelsea's possession game and emphasizes just how good he has been with the ball for Chelsea. When the Spaniard was playing at Barcelona in 2013-14, he was averaging almost 30 fewer passes per game and was connecting on fewer; he also had half the key passes per game. A lot of that had to do with his function on the squad, which prevented his creative flair from coming to the fore.

Another facet of Fabregas' game that has come to the fore at Chelsea is his crossing. At Barcelona he was averaging less than one cross per game while at Chelsea he is close to averaging two crosses per game. And he leads his squad by a healthy margin with Willian's 0.5 crosses per game as second on the squad. He is also first on the team in long balls (technically third behind the team's two goaltenders) with an average of 6.1 long balls per game. And he is also first on the side with an average of 0.6 through balls per game. He is undoubtedly the team's top passer.

It is also worth noting that despite being the player who possesses the ball more often than any other, he is fifth on the team in terms of being dispossessed. Obviously, more attacking players such as Eden Hazard and Costa would be expected to lose the ball more often, but it speaks to Fabregas' ability to control the game that he is dispossessed less often than defensive midfielder Nemanja Matic.

In Chelsea's showdown with Manchester City, the Blues lost the possession game by a healthy margin. Manchester always poses that kind of threat regardless, but without Fabregas, the team struggled to retain possession and dictate the pace. Here are some stats to marvel at. Without Fabregas, who averages 3.2 key passes per game, the team managed a total of three key passes in the entire 90 minutes. Hazard was the team's best passer on the night with an 84.2 passing success rate; Matic led the team in passes with 55. Oscar led the team in crosses with four, but only four other players managed one cross in the entire match. And the team only had one through ball in the entire game, which was produced by Ramires (the player tasked with replacing Fabregas).

In sum, it was not a sterling performance from the Blues, who lacked in creativity without their top midfielder. This team is still a great side without him, but it is among the elite with the Spaniard manning the midfield.