The Real Madrid forward believes Chelsea will win the title this season

Former Premier League star Gareth Bale believes Chelsea are the team to beat this season tipping Jose Mourinho's side to win the Premier League.

Bale, who spent six years at Chelsea's London rivals Tottenham, believes the strength in depth of Mourinho's squad means they stand a very good chance of winning the league this season.

In an exclusive interview with BT Sport he said: 'I feel Chelsea will win (the title) this year. They're very strong, so I reckon they'll win this year.'

Gareth Bale fires a shot on goal during the UEFA Super Cup Final against

Gareth Bale celebrates scoring his last-ever goal for Tottenham against Sunderland at White Hart Lane

Bale scored twice as Wales got their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign off to the perfect start as they edged past Andorra, with the 25-year-old insisting they have as good a chance as they've had for a long time to get out of their group.

'We’re quite a young team and we’ve been together quite a while now so the understanding is there.

'We fully believe this campaign is the one that we can make an attempt to qualify and with there being more teams able to qualify for the Euros it gives us more of a chance.'

And it is a former Wales international who Bale looked up to as a young footballer, modelling his game on none other than Ryan Giggs.

Gareth Bale celebrates scoring a classy free-kick against Andorra to put Wales 2-1 ahead on Tuesday night

'I always used to watch Ryan Giggs growing up for obvious reasons, he played on the left, same as I do, and he’s Welsh and everything like that.

'So for me I always used to watch him play and the way he played football was so nice to watch. The things he could do with a football were incredible.'