West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has claimed that the only reason why his side are not considered title contenders is because they are not a 'big club'.
The Hammers currently sit eighth in the Premier League table, just one point behind Manchester United and Liverpool, both of whom are still considered as outsiders to challenge for top spot come May.
Bilic has urged his side to start thinking with the same ambitions as the traditionally bigger clubs ahead of Saturday's match against Liverpool at Upton Park.
"Manchester United or Liverpool, who are one point ahead of us, they are thinking [about the title]. It's all psychological because it is Liverpool. I mean they have been used to being in a title race. Some people would give more chance to Manchester United or Liverpool than to Leicester - without any logical reasons about what is happening on the pitch because Leicester is much better than those two clubs at the moment," Bilic told reporters.
"And I bet you that many clubs who have more points than Chelsea are more afraid that, with a bad run, they could get in more trouble than Chelsea. They are thinking about the top six at least. So it is psychological because we are used to Liverpool to be there. That is normal. That is the mentality. That is the structure of the club and that takes time to change.
"To become a big club, you need years of that, what Liverpool have; tradition, history, everything. And that reflects on your daily work, no matter who the coach is. It's about the jersey, it's the club. Let's all say the smaller clubs, the clubs like us, or Crystal Palace, we are all trying to move forward. Of course we want to do it as quickly as possible.
"But this is a good example of how it doesn't go like that. Now, we will never say we have a chance to win the league. Whereas for Liverpool it would be normal for them to say, 'yeah, we are nine points off'. It's in the head. And it takes time to change that."
Victory for West Ham in the first Premier League match of 2016 would see them close the gap on leaders Arsenal to seven points for a few hours at least.
Barney Corkhill
