When Enzo Maresca's starting line-up was announced before Chelsea's trip to Brentford on Sunday, there was a sense of surprise among many Blues fans across social media.

And, after a drab goalless draw at Brentford stretched their winless away run to eight matches to leave their Champions League hopes in the balance, the questions about his team selection grew even louder.

Maresca rested Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer, Marc Cucurella and an in-form Pedro Neto against their west London rivals. In came Malo Gusto, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Christopher Nkunku and Noni Madueke, who all struggled to make an impact.

All four of Chelsea's rested stars came on in the second half and the Blues went from having just six shots and one on target before the interval to 17 shots and four on target.

The Chelsea boss also faced criticism from sections of the away end, who have shown increasing frustration at his style of play, amid chants of "attack, attack, attack" and "we've had a shot" during a poor first half.

The bigger concern is, although Chelsea remain fourth, the fight for the Champions League places is looking increasingly competitive, with Manchester City, Aston Villa and Newcastle all within three points of the Blues.

With a Conference League quarter-final against Legia Warsaw to come on Thursday, and the likes of Palmer and Jackson just returning from injuries, Maresca was quick to defend his squad rotation.

The Italian also blamed the quick turnaround for his selection gamble, claiming it was unfair the Blues had 24 hours less than Brentford to prepare for the match, having played Tottenham at home on Thursday.

"Not all of them were 100%," he said. "The idea was to start one way and finish another way. The plan nearly worked because we created more in the second half but the volume probably wasn't enough to win the game."

When pressed by BBC Sport on whether he could have rotated in other games, he added: "This is a different opinion. I am here to try to do the best for the club and players.

"I work every day with the players so I can see how they are. I am not sure if Spurs at home is harder than Brentford away. For me, they are all complicated."

Chelsea are winless in eight away matches, avoiding defeat away from Stamford Bridge for the first time in five matches on Sunday but having last tasted victory on their travels in early December at Tottenham.

They have been better at home and won five in a row.

The away form will be a concern though, with difficult trips away at Fulham, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest to come before the end of the season.

It feels an age away now when Chelsea were being talked about as being Liverpool's most realistic title challengers - a 2-1 win at home to Brentford securing a seventh straight win in December.

There are also concerns about misfiring forwards with Palmer on a long goal drought, Jackson 10 games without a goal while Sancho has not scored in 20 matches in all competitions.

Maresca is facing increasing criticism about Chelsea's conservative style of play and failure to qualify for the Champions League - with a top-five finish likely to be enough to seal a place - would only amplify this.

Chelsea's accounts highlight how important the lucrative Champions League is to the club.

Earlier this week they announced a £128m profit, which included income from selling their women's team to parent company BlueCo for £200m.

After several transfer windows of lavish spending the club would have lost more than £70m without this repositioning, and thus fallen foul of the Premier League's profit and sustainability regulations.

Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali's BlueCo also announced a heavy loss of £400m, and there was increased borrowing with interest payments due.

The substantial revenues involved in playing in the Champions League are crucial to help deliver a return on investment and in a season without a front-of-shirt sponsor, competing in Europe's elite competition would attract the kind of £70m-a-year sponsor the club is looking for.

That's not to mention the importance of qualifying for the competition to star players like Palmer, Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.

"For sure, it will be very important. I said since day one that our target is to bring this club back to where it should be, which is Champions League," Maresca, 45, added.

"Since day one we have been in the top four or five so we hope to finish there."

Valky: The mood among the fellow Chelsea fans attending the Brentford match having seen the starting line-up is one of incredulity. Legia Warsaw is the match where you rest key players. What a comedown after the excellent and exciting Spurs performance.

Nana: Really hope Maresca knows what he's doing because that's got to be one of the most toothless attacks I've seen for a while, even if you have to rest some players.

Martinez, Rwanda: Enzo Maresca really left out Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson versus Brentford… and we're meant to be pushing for top four? Conference League QF is on Thursday - plenty of time to recover. No need to panic rotate now. When will he learn?