Chelsea v Fulham Venue: Stamford Bridge Time: 7.55pmANDRE VILLAS-BOAS yesterday revealed he had made an official complaint to referees' chief Mike Riley about the performance of the officials in Chelsea's Premier League defeat at Manchester United.

Villas-Boas was still smarting yesterday by the manner of what was his first loss in charge of the Blues and his first defeat in a league game for 17 months.

Chelsea fell 2-0 behind at Old Trafford on Sunday to goals which replays showed should not have stood as both scorers had been offside, with United eventually running out 3-1 winners.

Villas-Boas said yesterday: “Very, very unhappy with a poor performance from the referees, which in the end had a decisive role in the result, and I don’t take it very, very lightly. You expect the linesman to do his job.

“I already went further ahead with the situation by speaking to the correct people. We all feel very, very down when the referee had such an impact on the result.”

Chelsea were also let down by their own wastefulness in front of goal, with Fernando Torres producing one awful miss.

Villas-Boas refused to comment on his striker’s state of mind yesterday, saying: “It’s not a question about an individual player. I’m very, very happy with how the team responded. Everybody is strong and with the correct frame of mind.”

However, the Chelsea boss all but confirmed Torres would have to wait for the chance to redeem himself, revealing he planned to flood his team with youngsters for tonight’s League Cup third-round tie with Fulham.

“The Carling Cup is an opportunity for us to put our best young talents across and give them experiences in these kinds of situations,” said Villas-Boas, who announced Josh McEachran, Romelu Lukaku, Oriol Romeu and Ryan Bertrand would all start, with Didier Drogba returning to the squad after being sidelined for more than three weeks with a sickening head injury.

“For us, it is not a new approach to the competition, because we did it last year,” he said. “It gives us a very good idea of where we stand regarding the young players that we are trying to bring through.”

That also means another rest for vice-captain Frank Lampard, who was withdrawn at half-time on Sunday with Chelsea trailing 3-0. That decision was seen by some as the latest evidence the 33-year-old is on the wane.

But Villas-Boas said: “It was an attacking substitution that we thought played right, not because Lamps was playing badly, because he wasn’t. He was having quite an impact in the game. It was just something that we had to do in the game to adapt the team to a more attacking style. Frank is a fantastic player and he will be one of our key players – as will the others – for the rest of the season.”

Villas-Boas insisted Lampard had nothing to prove, despite also losing his England place this month.

“When you have won so much in the game, and when you have such proven quality, when Frank has the amount of prestige that he’s gained nationally and internationally, he doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody,” he said. “He’s a top player in the world, could add to any team in the world. Jose Mourinho wanted him when he left Chelsea.

“I’d be surprised if a player of this dimension is aggressively touched throughout the end of his playing days.”

Villas-Boas revealed the likes of Lampard were unlikely to be involved at all in the League Cup this season, a policy that is in stark contrast to that of Villas-Boas’ mentor, Mourinho.

“In those times, there was an aggressive approach to winning the first trophy available,” said Villas-Boas. “I’m nobody to judge Jose’s choice on that situation.”

Insisting Chelsea’s youngsters were perfectly capable of succeeding, he added: “We also want to win the most amount of trophies possible. But we have taken this approach to the Carling Cup to promote the youngsters.”

Chelsea were yesterday linked with a move for one of the brightest talents around in Everton’s Ross Barkley. “People have told me he’s a good young, British talent,” Villas-Boas said when asked about reports of a January bid for €23 million.

“I really don’t know the player.”