Chelsea dropped Thiago Silva and Reece James for the game against Southampton on Saturday and then loss.
That meant criticism for Graham Potter, but in reality he had no choice.
James has suffered repeatedly from being rushed back from injury, and after two games in a week, it was essential he got a rest.
Thiago Silva is in a similar situation. A look at the stats for minutes shows that the 38 year old has played 2,270, more than anyone else in the squad.
The Brazilian has been the only thing between us and the relegation zone this season, and while we can’t control injures, we can make them less likely by resting him in situations like this.
We want him to be ready to play Spurs, and we want him to be able to play the second leg against Borussia Dortmund after that. So in this case, we just had to bite the bullet and sit him on the bench.