Portugal international, Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted that Real Madrid are a weaker team following the departure of a number of stars this summer, including Chelsea record signing Alvaro Morata.
The Spanish outfit have made an unspectacular start to their defence of both La Liga and the Champions League, suffering a 3-1 defeat to Tottenham just days after Girona shocked them.
That leaves them eight points adrift of Barcelona in the league, while Spurs are now favourites to top Group H after taking four points off the defending champions.
And Ronaldo believes their struggles this season can be traced back to their transfer business over the summer, when they surprisingly allowed the likes of Morata to depart.
"The players who have come in have great potential" the Portuguese superstar told reporters after netting the consolation goal at Wembley on Wednesday night.
"But Pepe, Morata and James Rodriguez made us stronger - now the team is younger. We are also without [Dani] Carvajal and [Gareth] Bale.
"It's not a worse squad, but it has less experience and that is very important - though it is not an excuse. I'm happy and don't want to set off alarms."
Morata has already scored seven goals for Chelsea across all competitions since moving to west London, while Karim Benzema has struggled in front of goal, netting just once.
James, meanwhile, moved to Bayern Munich, though has been used only sporadically so far, while centre-back Pepe moved to Turkish giants Besiktas.
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