Is Jose Mourinho playing the mind games or is Diego Costa really a doubt for the opening day of the season next Saturday? I guess that is down to us to decide but he did miss out on his expected bench place against Arsenal in the Community Shield.

Costa picked up an injury in the Champions tour of North America in pre-season and it was a repeat of the hamstring injury that he was troubled by for large parts of last season.

Garry Monk said this week he wasn't worried about whether Costa would play or not but with him missing out on the game at Wembley you do wonder whether there is more to this than just speculation.

Mourinho was of course giving nothing away and he said "I don’t know if he’ll be fit. You think I’m lying but I’m not. Two days ago he was ready, yesterday he trained normal.

"Next Friday if you ask if he plays against Swansea I won’t answer. Maybe he will,maybe he won’t."

The Champions have - for some reason - arranged a friendly for Wednesday night against Fiorentina and the Chelsea boss stated today that Radamel Falcao would start that game “Falcao will have had a bit more football, he will play against Fiorentina from the start,” he confirmed.

“We have Remy too, so if we don’t have Diego I am happy with the strikers I have.”

Any absence of Costa would be a bonus to the Swans as there is little doubt for me that they are weaker without him in the side - it doesn't necessarily make the task of winning much easier but it will be interesting to see this one unfold this week.

Photo: Action Images

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