John Terry and Diego Costa were among six stars dropped by Jose Mourinho as the Chelsea manager made major changes to his spluttering side for Wednesday's Champions League clash with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Mourinho admitted after Saturday's 3-1 loss at Everton that he would have to axe several players in a bid to freshen up a team that has won only one of their first five Premier League matches in their worst start to a season since 1988.

And he was true to his word as Blues captain Terry, Spain striker Costa, Serbia right-back Branislav Ivanovic, Serbia midfielder Nemanja Matic, Spain winger Pedro Rodriguez and Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel were all left out of Chelsea's Group G opener at Stamford Bridge.

Gary Cahill replaced Terry in central defence, while Ghana left-back Baba Rahman came in for his debut in place of Ivanovic.

In midfield, Ruben Loftus-Cheek started instead of Mikel and Oscar replaced Matic.

France forward Loic Remy led the attack instead of Costa as Chelsea looked to start their Champions League campaign with a much-needed victory over the Israeli club.