Burton Albion Match Preview

West Ham United’s big week ends with them trying to progress to the Emirates FA Cup fifth round but to do so, they will have to avoid a potential banana skin, as they travel to The Pirelli Stadium to face Sky Bet League One outfit Burton Albion in today’s early kick-off.

The Hammers haven’t played at this stage of the competition since 2023 but, as they were against Sky Bet Championship side Queens Park Rangers in the last round, they once again go into this game as favourites to extend their run here.

This should be a routine win for Nuno Espírito Santo’s men and it will certainly be the hardest test that Gary Bowyer’s side have had to face in this competition so far, as they have eased past non-league clubs St Albans City, Brackley Town and Boreham Wood on their way to setting up this tie.

The travelling support will certainly be aware of the fact that back in 2018, Manuel Pellegrini’s side were knocked out at this stage by AFC Wimbledon. The supporters who will make the journey up to Staffordshire will certainly not want to see a repeat of what happened on that occasion.

West Ham’s good run of form began with victory in the last round and they will hope it doesn’t come to an end here, especially with a crucial Premier League game to come next weekend with AFC Bournemouth providing the opposition in Stratford.

This will be the first ever competitive meeting between the two teams and the East Londoners will hope that they can claim victory inside ninety minutes here and not have to deal with extra-time for the second consecutive round.

The Irons’ Head-Coach named an experienced side for the tie against the Hoops last month and whilst he is likely to make changes here, it will be interesting just to see how many. Mads Hermansen started in the third-round but due to Espírito Santo opting to select the Dane for the trip to newly-promoted Burnley a week ago and then stick with him for the home draw with Manchester United, he did however state in the pre-match news conference ahead of this tie on Thursday that he would be rotating his goalkeepers again and Alphonse Areola would be taking over the gloves. Adama Traoré is in contention to make his full debut.

The match is a 12:15pm kick-off and live coverage is being screened by TNT Sports from 11:30am. The referee is Lewis Smith.