Spending a net total of £197 million in this summer window alone, and with the recent arrival of head coach Mauricio Pochettino, there has been a large onus on Chelsea to drastically rise from the form that saw them finish in the bottom half of the Premier League last season.

However, the hope of an emphatic start to the new campaign is now starting to fizzle out for most Blues fans, as on Saturday afternoon, an Anthony Elanga goal saw them defeated 1-0 at Stamford Bridge by Nottingham Forest, leaving them languishing in 11th position, much to the frustration of the Stamford Bridge faithful.

Expectedly, this result has led to a lot of reaction to Chelsea's dismal performance on social media, as fans try to pick the bones of just how their team were only able to conjure up two shots on target in the entire match, despite holding just under 80% of the possession.

Read more: Chelsea 0-1 Forest: Anthony Elanga embarrassed Mykhailo Mudryk with insane skill

Chelsea fan points finger at Thiago Silva

Thus, a Chelsea-based Instagram page posted their views on the match, pointing the finger towards issues that they believe stem from the back line and deriving that Brazilian veteran Thiago Silva is a factor that affected the outcome of the game, posting: "This won’t go down well, but I think it’s time to drop Thiago Silva. Playing him is becoming a problem because we have to play a back five to shoehorn him in. Playing four at the back will allow us to be better going forward, and I don’t think we’ll suffer much at the back. Nothing but respect to Thiago, but I think we’d be better off without him at the minute."

As expected by the writer of the post, this admission was met with a lot of backlash in the comments section, as the majority of replies did not concur with the sentiment being put forward, with many believing that Thiago Silva is not a key issue within the side.

One of which was only Thiago Silva himself. Taking to the comments only 10 minutes after the post was made to try and dim any suggestions that his presence was holding the team back from a tactical standpoint.

Thiago Silva hits back at fan

Hitting back at the account accusing him of being at fault for the loss on the weekend, the 38-year-old legendary centre-back wrote in response: "If you look closely at the game, we are playing with a line of four my friend! But there's no problem in assuming that I'm also responsible for the defeat. Put the pressure on me no problem yesterday!"

Quickly debunking the theory put forward surrounding the formation issues, Silva pounced to defend his corner, insisting that he does not mind the pressure and taking full responsibility for the defeat on the weekend.

This is not the first time that Silva has made headlines for publicly addressing issues at the club, as the Brazilian defender pleaded for the club to 'stop signing new players' back in April while also declaring that the club "need a strategy."