Slaven Bilic says he is expecting West Ham to be even stronger than last season over the course of the new campaign.

The Hammers brought a raft of new players in last summer and with boss Bilic also returning to the club he spent 18 months with as a player, they appeared to be taking somewhat of a step into the unknown.

However, they started well, beating the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City away from home in the opening months and eventually finished seventh. More new faces have arrived this time around and Bilic is expected to continue doing business right up until the close of the transfer window.

The move to the Olympic Stadium has undoubtedly added extra pressure to perform and the Hammers will be hoping to hit the ground running when they meet Chelsea on Monday, a game they are 5.25 to win, with the draw 3.75 and the Blues 1.62.

With even more television revenue being pumped into the Premier League, it promises to be one of the most competitive campaigns ever and West Ham have so far gone under the radar amidst all the talk of the bigger clubs fighting it out for the European places.

Bilic has now warned his side’s rivals that he believes they are a better team than 12 months ago and is confident they can enjoy another strong season. He said: “We’re excited, of course.

It starts for us on Monday, we did a good pre-season and we are ready for the start. We have a good squad – we’ve kept most of the players and we’ve added some players, too.

“We are expecting them to improve us – we’d expect that even without them because we have been together for a year now and had a good last season. We are expecting a good season, of course.”