Fulham boss starts the excuses early as he talks up West Ham ahead of Cup clash

West Ham take on Fulham in the Carabao Cup tomorrow night and their manager has already been ‘talking up’ his east London opponent, clearly with an element of trepidation evident after West Ham’s four game unbeaten run and six goal thrashing of Wrexham last time out.

In terms of a war of words ahead of a cup clash, however, Mourinho vs Wenger it wasn’t, but West Ham’s opponents tomorrow night have got in early offering excuses in advance as to why the challenge might be a daunting one.

Fulham travel across London with the small matter of three league places (and one division) separating the two sides, with the Cottagers sitting in West Ham’s favourite old spot of eighteenth in the Premier League.

Their manager Alvaro Arbeloa was quick to talk up their east London opponents who are in the midst of something of a purple patch just now, as if preparing the groundwork early. As reported by fotmob.com:

“Alvaro Arbeloa claimed West Ham “are not a Championship team” as his Fulham side prepare for their EFL Cup tie.

“An away game in another difficult stadium, against a team that are performing so well,” said Arbeloa.

They won their last game 6-0 [against Wrexham], they beat Southampton in the EFL Cup, also, so we know them.

“They are a difficult team with top players. Even some of them have Premier League level [experience], so for me they are not a Championship team. If we want to beat them, we need to perform so well.”

All well and good, it can hardly inspire his underperforming players to know their manager is a little concerned as to the quality of the players his side is about to encounter.

I still have memories of being the coldest I’ve ever been at a football match watching West Ham lose an FA Cup replay 3-0 to Fulham at Upton Park in February 2004. So it’d be nice to extract a bit of revenge even if it’s 22 years late.

“Best served cold” as they say. And I was bloomin’ freezing…