Avram Grant gives Steve Kean a glare, last time the sides met
Make no mistake about it. The FA Cup match against Blackburn this weekend is absolutely huge.
Slaven Bilic has admitted that he loves the FA Cup and wants us to get to a final this year. This passion is clearly shared with the players after the celebrations when Ogbonna scored the winner in extra time against Liverpool.
Blackburn away is not the tie that we wanted. This season we have thrived on the big occasion, the players and the fans get psyched for the big matches and we have pulled off massive results. Going all the way up to Blackburn for a no thrills FA Cup tie could turn out to be a lot tougher than first thought.
We have been cursed with more injury troubles this week, with Andy Carroll and Enner Valencia both ruled out after picking up knocks. Add this to Sam Byram being cup tied and Jenkinson/O’Brien unavailable we are looking short in a number of positions.
There are positives for West Ham though. Blackburn are 18th in the Championship, not playing particularly well and are struggling for wins. Apparently, they are no where near selling out their stadium for one of their biggest games of the season and have allocated us over 7000 tickets. That means that our support (which has sold out of course) will be huge, with such a high number of fans cheering on the team.
The other positive is that Manuel Lanzini could feature at some stage for West Ham. It will likely be from the bench, but that will give the whole team and the fans a lift that could push us onto victory.
Emenike is likely to start, and let’s hope he’s got his finishing boots on after a couple of misses against Norwich that could have won us 3 points. Payet and Moses are likely going to be flanking him, if Michail Antonio is shifted to right back like expected. Antonio has shown he is capable in that position, so could start there. Reece Oxford is another player that could fill in at right back, but he will probably form part of the central defence alongside Ogbonna and Collins.
Playing what will pretty much be a back 3, with Oxford dropping back, will mean there is less defensive responsibility on Antonio. This way he can surge forward and do what he does best, it will also give Cresswell some freedom to create from the left and link up with Payet.
The picture below shows what could be the starting lineup at the weekend. It should be strong enough to beat Blackburn and see us through to the next round.
COYI
Last time the sides met, it ended 1-1 at The Boleyn Ground. Thomas Hitzlsperger with a late equaliser.
