WEST HAM ....... 2 BIRMINGHAM .. 0
“YOU’RE not West Ham any more,” sang the raucous Birmingham away support. They were right too.
The old West Ham would have found a way to stuff this up, just like they did in the fourth round at Wigan last season.
The old West Ham relied heavily on the fitness of Andy Carroll. These days the London Stadium bulldozer is part of a good squad of players fighting to impress Manuel Pellegrini.
They used to have to choose between a cup run and Premier League survival, producing results like a 5-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest in 2014.
Ban
This lot have players coming back – and one or two coming in – that could and should see them move up the table and into the latter stages of the cup.
They include Samir Nasri, who impressed on his Hammers debut, his first game since November 2017 due to a doping ban.
His first 58 minutes back suggested he could prove to be a shrewd recruitment.
“I felt good, honestly,” said the Frenchman. “I thought I would struggle a little more with the rhythm as my last game was 13 months ago. “I’m just relieved that everything is now behind me and happy about those first 58 minutes. It was good and I’m just looking forward to the next game.
“The manager has said, ‘Once you know how to play football, you never forget it’. The only thing we were a little concerned with was the match fitness and rhythm.”
Carroll scored his first goal since April after coming on as a 19th-minute substitute for Marko Arnautovic, who had netted the early opener.
The Austrian, West Ham’s joint top scorer with nine goals, was angry at being taken off and showed it.
But Pellegrini insisted the decision had been taken as a precaution after Arnautovic complained of “pain in his back”.
Nasri has six months to earn a longer contract at West Ham.
Pellegrini, who won the title with him at Manchester City, has always insisted that, when fit, the two-time Premier League winner would be at the heart of his plans.
The way that Nasri