Andre Villas-Boas was "happy" with the result - a 2-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen at Stamford Bridge last night.
The Portuguese manager, 33, said: "It was not a brave decision to leave out Lampard, Terry and Anelka, in fact it would have been a mistake not to rotate, but I'm happy with the result - I played Malouda in the number 8 position -we played well.
"It was an emotional game. They had good chances before we scored.
"In the end it was a good collective performance."
Asked about David Luiz's goal, he said: "Luiz has the ability to score these types of goal, just like all our centre-backs."
Misfiring Fernando Torres did not score - Villas-Boas said: "He did well tonight and made the right decision to set up Mata rather than score himself. He did well I am happy."