Former Chelsea defender Alex has aimed a thinly-veiled dig at his old teammates, claiming big egos disrupted team morale at Stamford Bridge.

Alex, 29, left London for Paris Saint Germain in January after being frozen out by Andre Villas-Boas, who was reported to have clashed with senior players.

Villas-Boas has since been axed and Chelsea appear to be on the rise under interim boss Roberto Di Matteo, but Alex has suggested that some players felt they were more important than others.

"I feel better at PSG than I did at Chelsea," the Brazil defender was quoted as saying in the Daily Star. "Chelsea's squad had a lot of big names - and that entails a lot of egoism.

"Nobody at PSG feels more important than the others. We're at the start of a big adventure and we're all pullingin the same direction."

The Premier League is widely considered to be one of the best in the world, but Alex believes life in Ligue 1 is harder than English football.

"The French first division is a very defensive-minded and difficult league," he said. "It is often tougher than in England, where certain teams feel beaten before the start when they play Manchester United or Chelsea."