Was Royal ill or rested? He, Skipp and Romero were our best 3 players against Chelsea so it seems so ill judged to rest them after a high. Hindsight and all that. Maybe with their energy and grit it could have rubbed off on the front 3 - maybe
Emerson had a small injury issue.
But we really shouldn’t need hindsight to know that we won’t win without the best players. After doing this for countless seasons we should have the foresight to realise that we can’t make 6 changes for an away game and expect to win.