Chelsea boss Antonio Conte defended his team selection for defeat to Burnley.

The champions suffered a nightmare start to the campaign as they suffered their first opening day-defeat for 19 years and found themselves 3-0 down in the first half.

Conte named five rookies on the bench and handed a Premier League debut to Ivory Coast midfielder Jeremie Boga who lasted just 20 minutes after Gary Cahill was sent-off.

When questioned about his line-up and the suggestion he was sending some kind of message to the Chelsea hierarchy, Conte quickly hit back and strongly dismissed those claims.

Conte said: "Why ask this question? You were not happy with my 11?

"You don't know me very well and you can see in our pre-season I have always played the best formation and it happened the same today.

“I put the best player we had with this moment. I don't like this type of thing, about wanting to send a message? Why would I do that?"