Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo insists his players must find their own path if they want to crack the top six.
The manager believes they cannot rush their progress in order to gatecrash the Premier League establishment.
Wolves to go Chelsea on Sunday, 13 points behind the Blues who sit sixth, but Nuno knows they need their own identity and cannot copy their hosts.
He said: “We don’t want to. We want to make our own way. We don’t have any points to compare. We were in the Championship last season, so it’s a growing process.
“You cannot compare yourself. You have your own process, your own way. It’s a ladder, you have to go step by step, don’t look ahead of you, look at tomorrow.
“We don’t look at the table, we have to compete on Sunday, the best way we can against a very tough team, with very good players and a very good manager. It’s a tough stadium to go to.
“We have to know that going there, we have to be ready to compete. It’s a big thing for us; to be truly ready to compete.”
Wolves beat Chelsea 2-1 in December and have lost just four of their 18 games since.
Ryan Bennett starts a two-game ban for collecting 10 bookings with Romain Saiss likely to drop into defence although Nuno admits Bennett will be missed.
He said: “He’s been doing very well, but we truly believe who’s coming in will give a good answer. We are versatile enough to have options.
“Even though it’s a small squad the versatility of the players allows us to be comfortable when these things happen. We know this can happen any time.
“When we go back to having the idea of 16 outfield players we need enough versatility in the players to allow the players to do different positions.”
