Chelsea do not need to splash cash to win Premier League - Frank Lampard

Frank Lampard is convinced Chelsea do not need to attract fantasy players to Stamford Bridge to overhaul Manchester United at the top of the Premier League.

And the England midfield star warned big-spending Manchester City that they can't buy their way into the top four.

New Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti is under pressure to bring in a marquee signing like Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery.

However, Chelsea's biggest buy so far this summer has been £18million midfielder Yuri Zhirkov.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Mansour has given Mark Hughes £90m to bring Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gareth Barry and Roque Santa Cruz to Eastlands.

Lampard said: "I don't think it is a necessity now for us to go out and spend a ridiculous amount of money trying to find the perfect signing.

"Of course, there's a couple of players out there who would add a lot to this team.

"But there are millions of players who would not add much to this squad because we are so strong across the board."

Lamps is not at all disappointed by his club's lack of activity in the transfer market - he knows from personal experience that no amount of cash can guarantee trophies.

He has played under three managers - Avram Grant, Big Phil Scolari and Guus Hiddink - who have all tried and failed to emulate Jose Mourinho's achievement in bagging back-to-back Premier League titles in his first two seasons with the club.

He said: "Manchester City are buying big, spending a lot of money, bringing in quality players. But whether they can all gel together straight away remains to be seen. While you can spend, spend, spend, the one thing you can't buy is chemistry.

"I remember when Roman Abramovich first came to Chelsea.

"It was a similar situation, but we didn't win the league in the very first season, we came second with Claudio Ranieri.

"Then Jose Mourinho came in and we won back-to-back titles - which shows it can be done, but it does take a bit of time.

"You need the right manager and a period of time for him to work and for the team to gell.

"It's not about individuals coming in and acting like individuals.

"It's about putting them all together in a team and making it work, making it hum.

"And it remains to be seen if City are capable of doing that.

"You can buy success, but only if you buy the right players, players who are good on the pitch and good off it. That's the important thing.

"That's what we have had at Chelsea over the years. We've had great success in some seasons and not so much success in others - you learn from it.

"You learn it's about building a team rather than having a load of individuals in there."

Lampard believes that despite failing to make a big-name signing, Chelsea will still mount a big challenge for the League title and the Champions League.

He added: "The new manager is very good.

"We are all enjoying having Carlo Ancelotti here. Hopefully he can be our most important signing because he can bring some stability to the team.

"Training is very good. The work we are doing in training, the way he is working with the players, is all enjoyable.

"It is early days, but we are playing very well. It looks like we're starting to gell for the season.

"But these pre-season friendly games in the United States don't matter so much.

"The main concentration is all on when the league games start - that's when we have to be really at it."