Jose Mourinho's disgruntlement at Diego Costa's suspension continued ahead of Chelsea's Champions League last-16 first leg at Paris St Germain (7.45pm).
The Chelsea boss confirmed Costa will start, but does not expect his striker to be at his prolific best after an enforced and disputed three-match absence for treading on Liverpool's Emre Can.
Costa, who has 17 goals in 19 Premier League games this term, missed the matches with Manchester City, Aston Villa and Everton, but will come straight into the starting line-up at Parc des Princes as he bids for a first European goal for the Blues.
Mourinho said: "Yes, I start him. But I don't think it's good for a player to be three weeks, or three matches, without starting a game. So I don't think he's in the best of his condition."
Chelsea overturned a 3-1 first-leg deficit to win the quarter-final tie between the sides last term on away goals, courtesy of Eden Hazard's penalty in Paris and Demba Ba's last-gasp decisive strike at Stamford Bridge.
David Luiz, who left Chelsea for PSG last summer in a £50million deal, believes Mourinho's side are stronger this term.
Mourinho said: "Chelsea is a different team. We have some different players, we change a little bit the profile of our game, the identity of our game.
"I don't want to say we are better or not better. I'm saying that we change the profile of our game, so I believe that Parc des Princes will see a different Chelsea than last season.
"We beat them, but we lost. And we lost in Paris and again knockout competition was decided in the last minute.
"I'm not saying we won because we were better than Paris. We won because we scored a goal away and we didn't concede at home."
"I believe that Parc des Princes will see a different Chelsea than last season"
Chelsea had a rare free weekend after their shock FA Cup elimination to Bradford and will play for the first time in six days, since the late Premier League defeat of Everton last Wednesday.
PSG played Caen last Saturday in a defeat costly due to the number of casualties incurred, but Mourinho gave short shrift to the suggestion Chelsea had an advantage.
"We were not happy to be knocked out," he said.
"And the last person you should speak about accumulation of matches is with a manager of an English club.
"England is a special place and when the French players were on holidays at Christmas, we were playing five matches in 10 days, so don't speak with us about accumulation and fatigue."
The inclusion of Costa was always likely, but Mourinho has selection decisions to make in goal and in defence.
He would not declare whether Petr Cech, who started the most recent game and kept a clean sheet, would start ahead of Thibaut Courtois, who began the season as number one goalkeeper.
Kurt Zouma has displaced Gary Cahill to play in central defence alongside captain John Terry of late, but Mourinho could revert to the Englishmen's partnership.
