Slaven Bilic: 'It's not a good time to play Chelsea'

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has said that Chelsea will still have ambitions to secure a high finish in the Premier League table.

The defending champions have under-performed for the majority of the season, and they will not qualify for Europe next season unless they can put together a string of results during the run-in after bowing out of the Champions League and FA Cup.

Bilic feels that will make the Blues dangerous when they play his side on Saturday afternoon, with Guus Hiddink's men able to close the gap on West Ham to six points with success in West London.

The 47-year-old is quoted by BBC Sport as saying: "Chelsea are thinking there's nine games to go and if they click they can finish very, very high also.

"In that sense it's not a great time to play them because now they have only Premier League. Make no mistake - I'm expecting them to be really hungry and totally focused on the Premier League."

West Ham head into the game in fifth position having won their last three league matches.