West Ham manager Slaven Bilic admits he is impressed with Chelsea and cannot see the Blues losing their Premier League title advantage in the final part of the season.
Chelsea’s 2-1 win over West Ham at London Stadium on Monday night saw Antonio Conte’s side go back 10 points clear of second- placed Tottenham and 11 ahead of Manchester City, although Pep Guardiola’s side have a game in hand.
Bilic – whose West Ham side dropped from ninth to 11th with the loss to the Blues – was left impressed with the way Chelsea defend in numbers and remain concentrated from the first whistle, and believes they will win the title this season.
“This is the Premier League and they have enough points if they slip up,” he said following the match. “They are not going to lose. They won’t be casual.
“They look very serious and I can see them staying on top because of the quality they have and how solid and concentrated they are. And most of all how physically good their shape is.
“They always defend with a minumum five [players]. I’m impressed with them because they are 10 points clear.”
Despite the Hammers going two goals down before Manuel Lanzini’s 92nd-minute consolation goal, Bilic was not to disheartenedby his side’s performance.
“I’m really happy with how we started,” he added. “We knew we’d send the crosses in especially from [Robert] Snodgrass.
“The only thing that wasn’t good was that we wanted more players in the box not just Andy [Carroll].
“But then we made that mistake. Maybe teams can do it against us but not against them.
“They don’t miss those chances. The second goal, from our point of view, was also cheap.
“They deserved to win. If we had scored in the 61st minute we could have put pressure on them. So many times, we were in the right positions.
“I’m disappointed but there are sitll positives and we’ll use them in the remainder of the season.”
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