Gary Cahill believes Europe's top clubs will be wary of drawing Chelsea in the Champions League's last 16.

The England defender was hurt by Chelsea's semi-final elimination last season and says Jose Mourinho's men are "dangerous" and more experienced this term.

Cahill also thinks the Blues, who face Hull in their first Barclays Premier League contest since their 23-match unbeaten streak came to an end, can build momentum after responding from the loss at Newcastle by beating Sporting Lisbon 3-1 on Wednesday night.

"We're a good team," Cahill said. "We're certainly playing well.

"That unbeaten run that lasted so long, where we are in the league this season and how we're playing – I'm sure people will have taken a lot of notice of that.

"We're dangerous. I'm sure teams won't want to come up against us.

"But there are loads of dangerous teams going into the next round."

Chelsea are bidding for a second Champions League title in four years in Berlin in June after their 2012 success in Munich.

The Blues, who were beaten by eventual runners-up Atletico Madrid last term, on Monday could be drawn against Juventus, Basle, Bayer Leverkusen, Paris St Germain or Shakhtar Donestsk in the first knockout round, which takes place in February.

"It was crazy when I first came then after six months we ended up winning (the 2012 European Cup)," added Cahill, who signed from Bolton in January 2012.

"On the flip side the year before last (2013) we went out with 10 points.

"Last year we were so close. It hurt us a lot to go out in the semi-final. I feel that we're going stronger this season so let's see."

First Chelsea return to domestic duty, against Hull, before meeting Derby in the Capital One Cup quarter-final and then the busy festive program begins in earnest.

The Blues enter this weekend's fixtures three points clear of defending champions Manchester City, but questions concerning whether they could emulate Arsenal's unbeaten season of 10 years ago are now behind them.

"After the result at the weekend it was important to get that feeling of winning again," Cahill added.

"It's unbelievably hard to go through a season without losing a game; everyone realizes when you're in the league it's so hard to do that.

"Of course you want to keep it going, but no one was really speaking about it.

"We wanted to get positive results and keep that gap. At this stage to be top by three points is really good for us.

"It's important (to go on another run). It's important because at the end of the season we want to be top of the league.

"You see how close City at this moment are to us, even with that unbeaten run. We think about that: how hard we worked to go on that unbeaten run and how well everyone spoke about how we were playing, but yet we're three points in front with many games to go.

"We believe, because we're playing well and we look good. We've lost one game this season. Of course the belief is there."