Jose Mourinho expects the pressure to be off Chelsea next season after their summer of prudence in the transfer market.
No longer the extravagant spenders of Roman Abramovich's first four summers in England, The Blues have so far brought Steve Sidwell, Claudio Pizarro and Tal Ben Haim to Stamford Bridge on free transfers this summer.
In contrast, champions Manchester United have already spent around the £40million mark on three players, and Liverpool are also expected to open the chequebook in order to bankroll a title challenge.
With North London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham also looking to strengthen, Mourinho believes the media should not be quick to burden Chelsea with the tag of favourites for the Premier League trophy.
"People ask Chelsea, 'Last season you won two trophies; why did you not win four?' But not many journalists ask Rafael Benitez and Arsene Wenger, 'Why zero?' And not many people ask Manchester United, 'Why only the Premiership?'," said Mourinho in the club's official magazine.
"Is it about money? If it is, I hope that next season the media put pressure on the big spenders because the big spenders for sure will not be Chelsea.
"The spenders will be Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham and maybe Arsenal. I don't know, but it won't be Chelsea for sure.
"So maybe at the beginning of next season they will say that Chelsea are not the favourites any more because the club did not spend so much money."
The ever-quotable Mourinho has also wielded a bizarre analogy to explain the hit-and-miss nature of bringing through his young stars at Stamford Bridge.
"Young players are a little bit like melons. Only when you open and taste the melon are you 100 per cent sure that the melon is good," Mourinho added.
"Sometimes you have beautiful melons but they don't taste very good and some other melons are a bit ugly and when you open them, the taste is fantastic.
"One thing is youth football, one thing is professional football. The bridge is a difficult one to cross and they have to play with us and train with us for us to taste the melon.
"For example, Scott Sinclair, the way he played against Arsenal and Man United, we know the melon we have."
