Gary Cahill says Chelsea are happy to let their rivals do the talking in this season's Premier League title race after getting the Antonio Conte era off to the perfect start with a 2-1 victory over West Ham on Monday.
On Friday, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho accused his Premier League rivals of being "afraid" to admit their title aspirations, but at the end of an opening weekend that saw United and Pep Guardiola's Manchester City also record victories, Cahill insists that Chelsea want to do their talking on the pitch this season.
"You only have to look at all the things that happened last season to know it's irrelevant what anyone is saying about any team or any manager right now and who is going to win the league," Cahill told the London Evening Standard.
"It is not something we are bothered about. It's about working hard. We know what to expect and what's expected of each individual player.
"Last season was way short of the mark and everybody knows that, so we know what we have to do. We will let everybody else do all the talking and just concentrate on ourselves."
Against West Ham Chelsea's players exhibited a different level of energy and urgency from the beginning of last season, and Cahill believes Conte's gruelling preseason regime of double training sessions is already paying off for the Blues.
"Preseason is always hard, but this was one of the hardest I have experienced in the last few years -- definitely in terms of fitness," he admitted.
"We did a lot of running and intensive endurance work. But I feel it has been only good for the body and got us in the condition you have to be in to play in the Premier League, especially now it is getting more and more physical and demanding."