West Ham boss Slaven Bilic insists he will field his ‘strongest possible team’ for Wednesday’s EFL Cup fourth round clash with Chelsea at the London Stadium.

The Hammers made a stuttering start to the season, picking up just one win in their opening seven Premier League matches, while they also needed a 90th minute winner to beat League Two side Accrington Stanley in the last round of the EFL Cup.

Bilic’s men have shown signs of improvement over recent weeks, recording back-to-back league victories against Crystal Palace and Sunderland, and the Croatian is keen to build on that winning momentum by fielding a strong team for Wednesday night’s match.

He said: “I said after the Sunderland game that the approach would be to play our strongest possible team. We played on Saturday and the game is Wednesday and then we play Everton on Sunday.

“Now we have a full squad, we will decide and we are going to put a strong team out; as strong as possible.” The East Londoners have only made it through to the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup
in three of the last 16 seasons, while they have never tasted overall glory in the competition.

Despite their struggles in the tournament of late, Bilic insists his side are full of confidence ahead of their fourth round tie.

He added: “Last year we did well against Chelsea, beating them at home and drawing away, and this is a new season.

But we have got our confidence back and have a couple of wins and we’re very positive and we’ll try to knock them out.”

West Ham are available at 4.50 to win the match, while Chelsea are priced at 1.75 and the draw is on offer at 4.00.