Frank Lampard has claimed it is "ridiculous" to suggest Chelsea have the best squad in the Premier League after their defeat at Everton.
The Blues missed out on the chance to return to the top of the Premier League as a Gylfi Sigurdsson penalty proved to be the difference.
Chelsea invested heavily in the summer as they aim to close the gap on the likes of champions Liverpool.
Roman Abramovich spent over £200m on the likes of Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, but Lampard is still not prepared to acknowledge his side as the one to beat.
He told BT Sport: "It's a long season. If it makes some people who are talking about us, 'we're going to win the league, we've got the best squad in the league'.
"It's ridiculous stuff because, when you talk about best squads, you have to look at the teams that have won it in the last two, three, four years."
One of his summer signings, Edouard Mendy, was responsible for gifting Everton their penalty.
He made an error as he bought down Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
The Frenchman has generally been hugely impressive since joining and has helped tighten up Chelsea's defence.
And as a result Lampard was keen to defend his No 1 following his poor judgement.
"He's been outstanding since the first moment so I'll take that one," he added.
"It was a difficult moment, he got caught in the middle and made the foul."
The Blues also accepted that his side were not their usual selves and played right into Everton's hands.
"Not our best performance," he contined. "First 20 minutes were key for me, I knew it was coming, longer balls and second balls for a team needing a win.
"When you go 1-0 down, it absolutely suits their gameplan. We hit the post twice but for our levels and what we have been recently, not good enough.
