Everton's Roberto Martinez believes West Ham are top-five material

Everton manager Roberto Martinez has tipped Saturday's opponents West Ham to maintain their fine early-season form and contend for a top-five finish.

The Hammers head into their home clash with the Toffees in sixth position in the Premier League table, but they have a dismal record against Everton, failing to win any of the past 14 league encounters.

However, Martinez believes Slaven Bilic's arrival has helped change the club's mindset - citing away victories over Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City - and fully expects them to be in the mix for European qualification come May.

"The biggest strength of this West Ham side is they play with an incredible belief and confidence," Martinez said.

"The results they have had, especially this season, they start on the psychological aspect of having the belief that you can beat those sides. To get those results, away from home, it's very impressive.

"You have new players, a new manager coming in having them playing a very different way, it's going to be a terrific challenge. You look at the amount of points they have already - clearly they are a team that are going to be challenging to finish in the top five. It's how impressive they've been.

"We're going to make sure that we are ready to face them. In my eyes, with Leicester, they've been the most impressive side this season."

Everton have experienced mixed fortunes in their run of games since the last international break, suffering defeats to Manchester United and Arsenal before advancing past Norwich in the Capital One Cup on penalties and then scoring six against Sunderland last weekend.

Martinez wants to enter the next international break on a high by continuing the excellent form against West Ham.

"The periods that you've got now, with the international break, that's why the West Ham game is like a final within the league," he said.

"We all want to finish that period strongly. Our game against Sunderland gave us a real sense of confidence in what we can do going forward. We know that we need to improve in other aspects, but you will always get the confidence you get from scoring six goals from open play.

"We see the West Ham game as one of the games of the season for many reasons. The best reason to highlight is that Leicester and West Ham have been the best teams in the opening campaign.

"Clearly we want to be at our best against a team that is in form, a team that has surprised many opposing teams."