Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez stands by his selection for defeat at home to QPR.

The Spaniard had no regrets about his decision to omit the likes of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Ashley Cole in the 1-0 Premier League loss, despite it leaving Chelsea 14 points adrift in the title race.

Benitez, who drew praise during his first month in charge for the way he had managed the workload of his squad, said: "You cannot be criticised and praised for the same thing.

"Rotating players because we were playing so many games was really good.

"We had more players, we could use the squad and, after one game, they were saying, 'Oh, you were changing players'.

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

"We can manage the squad and we have to manage the squad because we have one game every three days."