Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas refused to discuss not starting Frank Lampard nor Ashley Cole for their Champions League defeat at Napoli.

Much has been made of the Chelsea boss' relationship with Lampard in particular, but he insisted his team selection was purely tactical, while Cole did not start after only just recovering from injury.

"You can have your opinion but it was based on what was the best team in my thoughts," Villas-Boas said.

"Whatever explanation I give you, in the end it would be a fantastic explanation if we'd won the game.

"Any explanation is now useless given the result of the game, so there's no point."

Villas-Boas, who admitted one of the formations he had been toying with but did not end up using had been written on a piece of paper left at the team hotel, added: "I had a conversation with Ashley and Frank.

"Through the players that they are and the players with the experience they have, they felt they could have helped the team.

"That's perfectly understandable."