Stoke City manager Mark Hughes does not believe that his side would have suffered humiliation against Chelsea if he were able to pick his strongest side.
Stoke suffered a 4-0 hammering at home against the defending champions on Saturday and although there was no doubting the fact that the Blues deserved to claim victory from the encounter, Hughes believes that the outcome would have been different if he had his first team regulars available for the game.
He continued: "It's very difficult to win any game at any level when you make the errors we made, but it's understandable to a certain extent given the personnel in defensive positions we were lacking.
"If we'd had our strongest side out, it would have been a lot closer than 4-0. If you give good players clear-cut opportunities at this level, they are more likely to take them and that's what's happened to us.
"The last two goals have embellished the result in their favour and we did well in the circumstances we are in. I think they would have taken 2-0, but once we were down to no centre backs they were able to put on a gloss."
Source: tribalfootball.com