You have no excuse, stop complaining – Mourihno attacks Conte

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has said that Chelsea manager Antonio Conte should not be complaining.

He said the Blues should be strong enough to challenge for the Premier League title this season.

Conte is claiming that his squad is too small, and had said on the eve of the new season that he “needed more players” at Stamford Bridge and was expecting “the most difficult season” of his managerial career.

Chelsea started their title defence with a 3-2 defeat to Burnley last weekend.

Mourinho noted that the arrivals of Tiemoue Bakayoko, Antonio Rudiger and Alvaro Morata for a combined £132 million should compensate for the loss of Nemanja Matic, John Terry and Diego Costa.

The Chelsea boss has also been linked with a £40m move for Leicester midfielder Danny Drinkwater, and Mourinho seemed to suggest a deal could be close.

Mourinho added, “When people say, for example, Chelsea lost an important midfield player, if you lose one but you buy Bakayoko and Drinkwater for example, what’s the problem?

“The problem is when you sell and you don’t buy. When you sell and you keep buying, what’s the problem?

“You are probably even stronger 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.”

Mourinho insisted that Chelsea, who play Tottenham at Wembley on Sunday, are still favourites to claim the Premier title this season.

He added, “For me the favourite is the champion. Always. It doesn’t mean you are going to win it but I think it is the stamp that you have when you are champion, it is that the next season you are the favourite.”

The former Real Madrid boss said Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester City and Chelsea will have no excuses if they do not challenge this season.

He said, “If they 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.

“If they have, and I don’t know if they have, but if they have, in a couple of weeks the problems are over.

“They have very good teams, very good players and I don’t see any reason for them not to be fighting for the title.”