Slaven Bilic: 'Andy Carroll impossible to mark'

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has hailed the "quality" of Andy Carroll after the striker netted the winner in a 2-1 victory over Chelsea at Upton Park this afternoon.

Carroll rose above the Chelsea defence to head home 11 minutes from time to hand West Ham all three points.

"It's impossible to mark him in the box," Bilic told BBC Sport after the final whistle. "His quality was never in question.

"If he's in good shape now we have a good chance that he will be injury-free for a long time.

"In that case West Ham and England will benefit from that a lot."

Bilic also said that West Ham have altered Carroll's training regime in a bid to steer clear of the injuries that have dogged his career so far.

He said: "We changed the schedule and philosophy and the way of training. He always used to come back after five or six weeks of training but it doesn't help him.

"He goes running into the box and fighting with people. Now he was training hard for six to eight weeks and came back in the team gradually."

The win at Upton Park has lifted West Ham up to second place in the Premier League table.