Chelsea manager Rafael Benitez has once again defended changing his team for their clash against Queens Park Rangers in the Premier League on Wednesday.

The Spaniard left out Ashley Cole, Ramires, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard from the starting lineup, as the Blues went down 1-0 at Stamford Bridge.

"We were rotating the team and winning games and everybody was praising the decisions," he told reporters. "You cannot be criticised and praised for the same thing.

"We were rotating players because we were playing so many games. It was good because we had more players and we were using the squad.

"We are professional, we know how our players are and we trust the players."

Benitez added that the changes to his team against QPR were "necessary".

"It was necessary," he explained. "Before I arrived we had 11 players who had been playing more than 60% of the minutes, they couldn't keep doing that because of the risk of injuries and tiredness.

"Two or three players against QPR were more tired than the others and that's maybe why we didn't play with the same tempo that we wanted to."

Chelsea are away at Southampton in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday.