West Ham faces AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup Fourth round proper at the Kingsmeadow stadium in Kingston, Surrey. The match will be televised live on BT Sports with a kick off time of 7.45pm
The game is an echo a similar cup draw played in August last year when the Hammers were drawn away to play the League one club away in the Carabo Cup. In that match, West Ham went one nil down after two minutes, although they finally won 3-1, they didn’t score to level it up until 63rd minute and relied on Wimbledon going down to ten men to secure a victory.
Manuel Pellegrini is likely to field a strong team to show the importance of the FA Cup to the club. We know Marko Arnautovic is not included in the squad despite his statement committing his short term future to the club.
Adrian is most likely to replace Fabianski as the cup keeper. Pellegrini has previously said Pablo Zabaleta struggles to play two games in a week so will probably we saved for Tuesday’s game against Wolves. The game probably comes too early for Fredericks to start after managing such 45 minutes in a practise game so Michail Antonio might drafted in to cover right back. With no other further options, Issa Diop and Angelo Ogbonna are likely to retain their centre back pairing but Aaron Cresswell could be rested to give Arthur Masuaku a start.
In midfield, I think Grady Diangana could start to replace Mark Noble and Robert Snodgrass could start instead of Felipe Anderson. I think Samir Nasri and Declan Rice are likely starting too.
We might see two up front from Javier Hernandez, Andy Carroll and Lucas Perez. I hear Perez has worked hard since being dropped last weekend so I would be surprised if Perez started with maybe Hernandez starting along side him with Caroll on the bench.
So here is my predicted line up: Adrian, Antonio, Diop, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Rice, Diangana, Nasri, Snodgrass, Hernandez, Perez
In today’s Claret and Hugh poll we ask whether West Ham will win, lose or draw in this evening’s FA cup game against Wimbledon?