Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert explained holding back Christian Benteke in defeat to Tottenham.
Villa's threatened second-half revival was prompted by the introduction of Benteke from the bench on the hour.
The Belgian had missed the previous two games through injury and he had two good chances before Roberto Soldado killed the Villa challenge.
Lambert claimed he had never considered starting with Benteke.
He said: "Christian has only trained four days in a month. It is unfair on him to ask him to go straight in.
"He has trained with us a couple of days and a couple with Belgium.
"That wasn't enough to throw him into a game of that magnitude. It was never an option."
