By Tomi Rantanen

Are injuries a real concern for Chelsea or just Mourinho mind-games?

Chelsea conceded late into added -time to draw at the last outing at Old Trafford and only managed to put one past the shaky defense of the United. Manager Jose Mourinho has spoken out, stating that Chelsea “are in trouble” with injuries, especially up front.

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Loic Remy is out for at least two more weeks with groin injury and Diego Costa has suffered from hamstring issues all season. The stomach virus that put him to hospital last week is gone, but the nagging injury remains. Didier Drogba played full 90 minutes on Sunday, and with his physicality and age is likely to feature from the bench, if at all. Andre Schürrle will be available though, at least for the time being.

Chelsea will be travelling to play Shrewsbury in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday, giving Mourinho a bit more to chew on. Let’s take a look how Chelsea will be affected by these injuries when playing QPR on Saturday, by using the AccuScore simulation.

If Mourinho is forced to only field Schürrle instead of Costa, Drogba or Remy here are the predictions:
Chelsea to win: 72.2% QPR to win: 7.3 % Draw: 20.6 %
Chelsea goals: 1.94 QPR goals: 0.48

Replacing Schürrle with Costa:
Chelsea to win: 85.9% QPR to win: 3.2 % Draw: 10.8 %
Chelsea goals: 3.05 QPR goals: 0.51

According to AccuScore simulation, Chelsea are clear favorites at home but likely to lack the destructive firepower if Costa is not available. All due respect for Schürrle, but obviously he is not a match for the leading goal scorer of the Premier League.