Jose Mourinho: We're improving but West Ham will be tough opponents

Big test: Mourinho believes West Ham will ask questions of his side
Tony O'Brien/Action Images via Reuters
Simon Johnson23 October 2015

Jose Mourinho believes Chelsea's form has turned the corner, but admits West Ham will put their hopes of a revival to the test tomorrow.

Chelsea followed up a solid 2-0 win over Aston Villa last Saturday with a 0-0 draw at Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League in midweek.

It was one of their best defensive performances of the season and they will go to Upton Park hoping to close the six point gap that exists between the two clubs.

When asked if he'd seen an improvement in the side over the past week, Mourinho said: “In the team performance and the results. The victory against Aston Villa was a good result, the draw in Dynamo was a good result.

"Matic went from being on the bench against Aston Villa, played the second half positively, to being the man of the match for Uefa three days later.

"So that is just one example. Other players also improved in their performances. A bit better.

“It's important. Not just the clean sheets, but the way the team played to keep the clean sheets. It was not an occasional clean sheet, a clean sheet based on a super goalkeeping performance. Both were based on good teamwork.”

West Ham have thrived under new coach Slaven Bilic and have already beaten Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool this term, although they were all away from home.

Pressed on whether he considered West Ham to be difficult opponents, he added:

“Look at the table. It's easy. See where they are. See where we are. And then it's easy to draw conclusions.

“As a coach, I like Bilic a lot. Since the Croatian national team period, to Besiktas and now to West Ham, I've had a very good image and idea about him.

"As a person, I don't know him very well. But I have the feeling that we could be friends.”

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