West Ham have been drawn away to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round.
It will be the sixth FA Cup meeting with Forest and the second time we will face them at this stage of the competition.
Our last two FA Cup meetings were won by a 3-2 scoreline, while we have only lost one previous FA Cup game against Forest – that being the 4-0 semi-final loss in 1991.
The game will take place on either the 4th or 5th of January 2014.
Only West Ham can win 3-0 on a Saturday, giving us all hope we have turned a corner, and three days later get beaten by the team at the bottom of the league.
It’s onwards and hopefully upwards from here, but an away game against a high-flying, free scoring Liverpool might prove to be a mountain to climb.
But we need a show of spirit and fight for the badge on Saturday at 3pm.The stats don’t give great encouragement, except for the 30% drawn games in our last 20 away matches. And a draw looks our main chance of taking home any points from Anfield. The draw at 9/2 looks appealing, or we can get 9/1 for a 1-1 draw.
In the hope of Sam changing a few players from the midweek defeat, and how often an ex-player comes back to a team and scores (Chamakh being an example), we will have a tentative bet on Joe Cole or Stewart Downing scoring against a team they had a difficult time with. It is unlikely both will start but Cole can be got at 14/1 and Downing at 20/1.
This weeks recommended bets are one of the following…
Remember, don’t let the Claret & Blue heart rule the head. It’s a long season.
Let us know at West Ham World how your bets are going or what you recommend by commenting in the box below or on Facebook or Twitter.
Come on you Irons!
The 2014 FIFA World Cup draw takes place this Friday in Brazil but you can follow all the action with our Thomson Sport #GetMeToBrazil Live Blog, bringing you all the news, updates and samba dancing you can handle in one afternoon.
The live draw will start at 4pm (UK Time) but you can join us from 2.45pm on the Thomson Sport blog below for some pre-draw shenanigans, before the likes of Sir Geoff Hurst, Zinedine Zidane, Cafu and Fabio Cannavaro take to the stage in Brazil to announce the draw.
The 32 teams who have qualified for the finals will be drawn into eight groups of four with the top two in each group progressing to the knockout stages. There can be no more than two European team in any one group and only one from South America.
The seeded teams are Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay and Switzerland, who are all in Pot 1. The other 24 teams are divided into pots by geographical region.
England have been placed in Pot 4 with the other unseeded European qualifiers. However they could yet be moved into Pot 2. There’s potential that England could definitely face a South American team, and European opposition from Pot 4. In short it’s complicated. But, don’t fear, our live blog will clear that all up for you.
Thomson Sport are the official sponsors of the World Cup draw live blog hosted on FootballFancast.com and are the FA’s official Travel Partner, so if you want to join England in Brazil next year then head HERE: http://bit.ly/brazilprize
1963. That’s the year we last managed to win at Anfield. That means that, for many of you reading this, you have never seen the Hammers triumph in front of the Kop.
That’s a hell of a long time to go without recording a victory and it has to end at some point. But on recent evidence there’s not much to boost our optimism that this is going to be our year.
If Tuesday’s loss to Crystal Palace wasn’t alarming enough, seeing Luis Suarez hit four against Norwich City on Wednesday means Saturday’s meeting with Liverpool looks set up for yet another disappointing result.
We have shown already this season that we can up our game against the better teams and Hull City proved to us last weekend that if you set up right against Liverpool they are very, very beatable.
So if there’s any hope of victory to cling on to, it’s just that. Liverpool can be beaten and it would be typical of West Ham to do so after recent poor performances against significantly weaker opposition.
But how will Allardyce approach things this time around? He changed a winning side at Selhurst Park and was punished for it. So it’d be nice to see him revert back to the XI that started against Fulham last weekend, particularly now that Ravel Morrison will miss the game through suspension.
What’s more, it would also be nice to see him drop the hugely ineffective Kevin Nolan, although Morrison’s absence all but delays that decision for at least another week.
December is going to be a very difficult month for us as we attempt to pull ourselves away from the Premier League’s drop-zone. We’ve still got a trip to Manchester United on the horizon, as well welcoming Arsenal to the Boleyn Ground on Boxing Day. So the two home meetings with Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion before the turn of year are going to prove crucial to our chances of achieving the goal of successive top-ten finishes and, might I add, should give us more of an indication of whether Allardyce has it in him to turn things around.
The return of Andy Carroll will be crucial to that – and how we could do with him at Anfield tomorrow – but in the mean time we have to continue with what he at our disposal. Modibo Maiga and Carlton Cole aren’t world beaters, but they will find the net if they get enough service. That’s why I think it’s crucial that both Stewart Downing and Matt Jarvis start each game, otherwise the lone striker, whoever that may be, is going to be useless up front once again.
Verdict: A win isn’t impossible, but it’s unlikely. Draw.
Liverpool (4th, 27 points)
Daniel Sturridge is Brendan Rodgers’ only injury worry as he continues to recover from ankle ligament damage.
Liverpool expected to remain unchanged from the side that thrashed Norwich 5-1 on Wednesday night.
West Ham United (17th, 13 points)
Andy Carroll has returned to training but is still a few weeks away from returning to first-team action.
Winston Reid, Ricardo Vaz Te and Mladen Petric are all long term absentees.
Ravel Morrison is suspended after picking up a fifth yellow card in the 1-0 loss to Crystal Palace on Tuesday.
| Date | Competition | Venue | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Apr 2013 | Premier League | Anfield | D 0-0 |
| 9 Dec 2012 | Premier League | Boleyn Ground | L 3-2 |
| 27 Feb 2011 | Premier League | Boleyn Ground | W 3-1 |
| 20 Nov 2010 | Premier League | Anfield | L 3-0 |
| 19 Apr 2010 | Premier League | Anfield | L 3-0 |
| 19 Sep 2009 | Premier League | Boleyn Ground | L 3-2 |
| 9 May 2009 | Premier League | Boleyn Ground | L 3-0 |
| 1 Dec 2008 | Premier League | Anfield | D 0-0 |
| 5 Mar 2008 | Premier League | Anfield | L 4-0 |
| 30 Jan 2008 | Premier League | Boleyn Ground | W 1-0 |
13 – Luis Suarez has scored one more Premier League goal (13) than West Ham have as a team so far this season (12).
0 – But Suarez has never scored against the Hammers.
50 – It is 50 years since the Hammers last won a league match at Anfield.
6 – West Ham have scored just six goals in their last 28 league visits to Anfield, including the last five in a row.
100 – Kevin Nolan is set to make his 100th first-team appearance for West Ham.
50 – Carlton Cole needs just one goal to make it 50 league goals for the Hammers.
3 – Liverpool have scored three or more goals in 6 of their last 10 meetings with West Ham.
5 – West Ham failed to score in five or their last seven Premier League away matches.
5 – But the Hammers also have the joint best away defensive record with Arsenal in the Premier League, conceding just five goals.
0 – Liverpool are yet to feature in a goalless draw so far this season.
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | GD +/- | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 139 | 28 | 38 | 73 | 135 | 237 | -102 | 20.14% |
After Tuesday night’s loss to Crystal Palace, every single West Ham fan was left asking questions of Sam Allardyce’s ability to turn current form around and start delivering on his promise of another top-ten finish.
So far this season we have seen him make dodgy decisions with line-ups and substitutions, with the 3-0 victory over Spurs the only thing he can arguably be praised for.
Speculation over the length of time he has left in the Hammers hot-seat is mounting and thousands of fans are becoming sick and tired of the football being played under his watch.
So when ‘Terry’ called up talkSport to broadcastl his feelings on the way Allardyce and the players have performed recently, particularly at Selhurst Park on Tuesday, there will have no doubt been a whole host of fans agreeing with his every word. But has it got that bad at Upton Park that we must bring in Paolo Di Canio as manager in an attempt to get the players organised and discliplined again?
I, for one, wouldn’t be pleased if the club replaced Allardyce with Di Canio. He’s a legend at the club and, if he ends up doing the same at Upton Park as he did at Sunderland, that status will soon take a turn for the worse.
But Terry seems to believes Paolo is the only man in football who can really get West Ham back playing they way they should be and who can help is progress to the next level.
Here’s Terry’s talkSport call-in on Wednesday…
His call provides more of a comedy factor than anything but, if you look past that, his passion for the club speaks a thousand words.
But do you agree with him? Is it time for the club to bring in Paolo Di Canio? There’s a lot of truth in what Terry says regarding Allardyce and the current striker crisis, but Paolo? Really?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
