Sam Allardyce believes he would have been a goner had the Hammers not got a result from Stamford Bridge last season.
Eleven months later he returns with a genuine chance of taking something from the game again with his high flying Irons.
Back in January we’d been humiliated in both the FA Cup and were fighting for the Premier League lives.
Allardyce admits he would have been staring down the barrel had Mourinho’s side stuffed West Ham on that day.
He said: “I might not have been here had we lost. Chelsea can beat you five or six on their ground.
“On the back of our recent results it would have made life for the owners even more difficult to get behind me.
“Everyone expected us to lose and we didn’t. It was a part of our recovery at at time when we had had such a bad Christmas and New Year period.
“The confidence we gained from that big result was part of us getting out of the relegation zone.
“This one is totally different. We are fourth in the league, we’ve got better, younger players and hopefully we will give a good account of ourselves – which is a result not a good performance and a loss.”
