Jose Mourinho has piled more pressure on his old club Chelsea and their manager Antonio Conte.
Just weeks after leading the Blues to the title in his debut Premier League season, Conte is now complaining about a lack of strength in depth in his squad which was so obvious in their pre-season tour.
However, Conte's predecessor - Mourinho, who suffered a second season lapse after helping the Blues lift the league title in his second stint at the club insists that a repeat of an ill-fated season is not on the cards.
The Portuguese, now the Manager at Manchester United, raided his old club this summer to recruit £40million midfielder Nemanja Matic.
"When people say, for example, Chelsea lost an important midfield player, if you lose one but you buy Bakayoko and Danny Drinkwater, for example, what’s the problem? Mourinho asks.
“The problem is when you sell and you don’t buy. When you sell and you keep buying, what’s the problem?”
Continuing his assessment of Conte’s squad, Mourinho added: “You’re probably even stronger [than last season], so I think every top team in the Premier League is strong enough, is potentially strong enough, with the financial situation to be fighting for everything.
“And when everybody is also in Europe — five in the Champions League and then two in the Europa League, you have the top seven teams playing for everything and all of them are strong.
“If they [United’s rivals] have problems, the problems are going to finish in a couple of weeks, because in a couple of weeks the market is closed and they don’t have problems anymore.”
Mourinho guided the West Londoners to three Premier League crowns across two spells in charge insisted Conte’s beleaguered Blues remain the favourites to win the title.
He said: “For me, the favourite is the champion — always. It is for some reason they were the champions.
“It doesn’t mean you’re going to win it. I just think it’s the stamp you have when you’re champions — that the next season you’re the favourite.”
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