Chelsea players and fans alike have suddenly developed an irrational fear of all things navy-blue after they lost for the fourth consecutive match after having donned their horizontally striped navy shirts.

Carlo Ancelotti refused to blame Petr Cech's ineptitude in letting in Carlos Tevez's winning free-kick, nor Frank Lampard's rare penalty miss as Manchester City inflicted the Blue's fourth defeat in all competitions on Saturday evening.

The Italian instead opted to put the blame in the hands of his midfield, but could have avoided pinning the responsibility on any of his players at all, had he spotted the common denominator in his side's defeats this season - their third choice shirts!

Chelsea have suffered all of their defeats this season when wearing the two-tone navy numbers, following losses to Aston Villa, Wigan, Blackburn in the Carling Cup last week, and now to the sky blue of Manchester City.

That means they have won all of their other games when wearing their regular royal blue or their all-white away shirts, besides their only draw in this campaign, away to Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Champions League.

All of which begs the question: when will Ancelotti's side lose next this season?

After a quick consultation of the fixture list, ExtraFootie can confirm, according to the navy-blue hoodoo, it will be on their Boxing Day trip to St Andrew's, unless they can get away for wearing white for that encounter!