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Cape Town - West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has lauded Antonio Conte's Chelsea ahead of their Premier League encounter on Monday night.
Bilic has been impressed with the way Conte has reinvigorated the Blues' star players, and believes their energy is the reason they find themselves at the top of the standings.
He told the Evening Standard: "If I am asked to describe Conte's teams, I would answer - energy.
"His teams work hard but also have quality. It shouldn't be difficult to make even average players work hard because they should know that is the minimum but it is more difficult to make big players work hard and make sacrifices for the team - that is the key.
"That's what Conte is doing. Some of the top teams rely on their class. You don't, for example, need that maximum energy for many games if you are Real Madrid. You can still win because you have the class.
"At Chelsea, though, the whole team are playing with that peak energy. The best example I can give is Hazard. He is working as hard as anyone in that team now.
"That's the difference I can see between Conte and some of the others and he does it long-term. It's not just an impact for a few months and everyone is hyped up - he did it for three seasons at Juventus."
