• Premier League

Mourinho: Chelsea ready to win Premier League again

Jose Mourinho has issued a stark warning to Chelsea's Premier League rivals and said his side are intent on winning the title.

Chelsea finished third last season, behind champions Manchester City and Liverpool, but Mourinho has moved swiftly this summer to strengthen his squad. He has already declared his lack of worry over Louis van Gaal's arrival at Manchester United and believes his squad now possess enough experience to dethrone City.

"If I didn't think that way I would go home and let somebody else take charge of the team," Mourinho told Chelsea's official website. "People can speak about other leagues but England is the only country where five or six teams can win the title. Football is about competitiveness every weekend and that only happens in the Premier League.

"People can speak about other leagues but England is the only country where five or six teams can win the title. Football is about competitiveness every weekend and that only happens in the Premier League.

"When you have the two Manchester clubs, the three clubs from London - Tottenham, Arsenal and ourselves - plus Liverpool, that's six top teams, where all of them can win the title. That's why everybody loves the Premier League.

"At Chelsea, if we didn't think we could win the league, or didn't think we had the quality to do it, we wouldn't be here working so hard. We respect our opponents and their ambitions, because they have the same ambitions as us, but we want to win the Premier League and we are ready for that."

Mourinho admitted last season that his side ultimately lacked firepower up front and several times found himself at loggerheads with his strikers. With Fernando Torres' future in question, Mourinho has brought in Diego Costa from Atletico Madrid while Didier Drogba could make a return to Stamford Bridge.

Another forward, Romelu Lukaku, sensationally claimed he had been kept in the dark over his future but Mourinho seems prepared to give the Belgian a chance to impress.

The Portuguese signed Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona while Thibaut Courtois and Filipe Luis both arrived from Atletico Madrid having won La Liga and made the final of the Champions League. As a result, Mourinho believes his side are much stronger than the one that lost to Atletico in last season's Champions League semi-finals - and this time they can go one better.

Mourinho said: "Last year we reached the semi-finals and it was a transitional season. A team which has been a winning team for ten seasons is changing step by step, we've bought new players and we are trying to build for the next decade.

"We had a very young team at the time but, even so, we reached the semi-finals and were playing to win the competition. This season we think we are going to be stronger, the younger players are more experienced, they are stable and better adapted to fighting for titles.

"You look around, to Spain, Germany and elsewhere in England, teams are getting stronger, spending big amounts of money and trying to sign the best possible players. We will go to the Champions League group stage with one objective: to qualify. When you reach the last 16 let's see what happens."

One player who will not be rejoining Chelsea, however, is Tiago Mendes. The midfielder has re-signed with Spanish champions Atletico for another two years.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd