FA Cup: West Ham rated one of Arsenal's main threats

Michael Lintorn
26 January 2015

Diafra Sakho stepped up for West Ham in a labour at Bristol City

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Michael Lintorn explores West Ham's place among the FA Cup frontrunners, and also argues Stoke's corner...

"West Ham have far greater capacity to prioritise the competition than any of the other Premier League survivors, as they don’t have to fret over relegation and have no real shot at a top-four finish judging by their Betfair odds of 50.049/1."

What do you get if you take Chelsea, Man City, Southampton and Tottenham out of the FA Cup in the fourth round? The answer is West Ham as 9.08/1 fourth favourites to take the trophy, even with four rounds left to negotiate.

The perception of the Irons as prominent contenders, trailing only holders Arsenal 3.814/5 and replay-bound giants Man United 4.57/2 and Liverpool 7.26/1, is even more remarkable when you consider that they went four years without a win in the competition before edging past Bristol City 1-0.

Sam Allardyce failed six times to earn a 90-minute FA Cup victory as West Ham boss before the triumph at Ashton Gate. However, there has been a sense that this might be their year ever since the thrilling third-round replay shootout success over bogey team Everton, who they haven't beaten in 16 clashes.

The advantage that the east Londoners possess is that they have far greater capacity to prioritise the competition than any of the other Premier League survivors, as they don't have to fret over relegation on 36 points and no real shot at a top-four finish judging by their Betfair odds of 50.049/1.

By contrast, Champions League qualification has to be chief target for Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool, with the Gunners and Reds also juggling Champions League and Capital One Cup campaigns respectively.

Rightly or wrongly, most employees at Crystal Palace, West Brom, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Leicester would rather finish 17th or higher in the Premier League than claim some silverware.

Of course, it won't take much to crush West Ham's optimism though as the home humblings by lower-league opposition of Chelsea and Man City, who boasted far more quality and recent FA Cup pedigree, made emphatically clear.

Assuming they avoid their own fourth-round hiccup this evening against Rochdale, Stoke are quite possibly the most intriguing club in the market at 20.019/1.

The Potters were finalists in 2011, are roughly three wins shy of Premier League safety, haven't exited the FA Cup to a lower-league side this decade and were upset in the Capital One Cup just once in that period too.

Though he hasn't yet reached a final, manager Mark Hughes has a respectable final-four strike rate in the domestic cups too. He was both an FA Cup and Capital One Cup semi-finalist with Blackburn, the only side that he worked for longer than he has Stoke.

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