Mourinho: Costa expected to miss 4 games; everyone else fit

As ever, the least silly part of Jose Mourinho's weekly press conference was the injury update. The manager has confirmed that everyone bar Diego Costa, who re-injured his hamstring in the 2-1 win against Stoke City last Saturday, is fit and ready to play, which means a welcome return for John Obi Mikel, who'd been kept out of the lineup with a knee problem that eventually required surgery.

We're now four strong in central midfield again, which is great timing considering that both Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas are a yellow card away from two-match suspensions (although that gets reset if they survive the trip to Loftus Road).

As for Costa, I'll let Mourinho say it:

We have eight matches to play, if he [Costa] plays four it's normal. If he plays three it's a little bit below what I'm expecting. If he plays five it's more than I'm expecting. At this moment I don't want to think of him (Costa) for two, three weeks.

Source: Mail.

That timetable would leave Costa on the sidelines as Chelsea take on Manchester United at home and then Arsenal away, which is suboptimal, but if all goes well we probably shouldn't need the big man anyway. Loïc Rémy's done more than enough to give us faith that he can serve as a perfectly fine backup as we look to get over the finish line.