Ramires still isn't all the way fit, says Mourinho

One of the stranger stories about this season has been the lack of rotation in this Chelsea squad. We know that the Blues reserves have a great deal of quality -- John Obi Mikel and Ramires were instrumental in an amazing Champions League run and André Schürrle was one of the key players in Germany's victorious World Cup final -- but they simply haven't been used very often.

Actually, that's not true. They were being used plenty, right up until they all first got hurt or ill. Since right about the Manchester City game, when Ramires limped off injured, we've lost both the Brazilian and André Schürrle from regular rotation.

We've heard the weird tale of Schürrle's illness from the manager plenty of times, but stranger than that is that Ramires (whom, if you'll remember, was injured by a kick to the leg at the Etihad) still isn't all the way back from his injury. Here's Jose Mourinho:

Hopefully Ramires is getting there step by step. Against Tottenham he played 45 minutes. He's a player we need and he's a player we haven't had for the first part of the season. When we had him he was not really ready and finally he looks like he's almost getting there.

-Source: ChelseaFC.com.

Without Schürrle and Ramires regularly rotating through this side, we're in much better shape than when they're laid up and half fit for months with unspecified health problems. I don't know what's going on here, but it's getting downright Arsenally at this point. Chelsea need those two back and firing on all cylinders or we'll wear everyone else out.