West Ham closing on deal for Gômez
Pellegrini 'ashamed' of his players
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Thanks for your company. A quick nugget of news: Marko Arnautovic has signed a new undisclosed-length contract at West Ham. “I love this club and I will always love this club no matter what,” the Austrian says. Hmmm. And time for a glance at the teams who have already sealed their spot in Monday’s fifth-round draw: AFC Wimbledon, Millwall, Swansea, Bristol City, Manchester United, Watford, Manchester City, Doncaster, Derby. Do join us for the rest of this weekend’s FA Cup action:
FA Cup fixtures
Crystal Palace v Tottenham, Sun 4pm (GMT)
Chelsea v Sheffield Wednesday, Sun 6pm
Barnet v Brentford, Mon 7.45pm
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Read Ed Aarons’s match report from Kingsmeadow:
Wally Downes, changed into his usual get-up – tinted glasses and a wonderful burnt orange cardigan – talks after that brilliant 4-2 win. Wimbledon are through to the fifth round, meaning they have gone further in the competition than Liverpool, Arsenal and Everton. “I told them that it was a great game to blow away the cobwebs from the game on Tuesday night,” Downes says. “Football’s random, there is a load of analysis that we do but on any given day, any team can beat any team. On a one-off night, anybody can beat anybody.” Of Toby Sibbick, the academy graduate who added Wimbledon’s fourth, he adds: “He told me last week he’s no good at heading it. But, Wimbledon has always been about young players coming through the youth system.”
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Some AFC Wimbledon reaction. “I thought the boys were excellent, and we need to make sure now that we do that every week,” says Scott Wagstaff. “Today’s performance shows we can do it so now we have to pick up and show we can in the league. I’m buzzing. We need to enjoy times like this, it doesn’t happen very often.” Wagstaff said pre-match that he would dye his hair in Wimbledon colours if they were to dump West Ham out. So, will he be keeping his promise? “I’m going to have to do it, I’ll be true to my word. I’m not sure my missus will be too happy, though.” Toby Sibbick, who put the gloss on the victory, added: “It’s one of the highlights for me, scoring against Premier League opposition.”
Full-time: AFC Wimbledon 4-2 West Ham
They’ve done it! Wally Downes’s side cruised into an unimaginable three-nil lead before having to dig deep to fend off West Ham’s cavalry – Felipe Anderson and Lucas Perez both entered at half-time. Ryan Fredericks, who was also introduced at the break as Manuel Pellegrini made a triple change, made a difference too but, ultimately, a double by Scott Wagstaff and goals by Kwesi Appiah and Toby Sibbick sealed a famous victory over an off-colour West Ham. Just like that, the lowest scorers in League One have upset a Premier League side, and in some style. Wimbledon fully deserved the win; they turned up from start to finish, with goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale equally impressing too.
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90+4 min: Ramsdale saves from Antonio! Another superb stop by the young England Under-21 goalkeeper. The ball drops at the back post, where Antonio has time to get it under control before Ramsdale gets a strong hand to his effort.
90+3 min: Manuel Pellegrini looks almost scared on the bench, his hands covering his mouth. There will be some serious questions for him to answer over his team selection and quite as to why his team were so painfully flat for the first 46 minutes. For West Ham, it was all too little too late.
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90+2 min: And now Sibbick heads for the corner flag. “We want five,” is the chant from the delirious Wimbledon fans.
90 min: There will be five added minutes. Ramsdale does brilliantly just as the fourth official holds up his board to smother the ball away from Antonio after the West Ham forward piled in at the back post in an attempt to force it home. Ramsdale stands strong.
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89 min: What an occasion for 19-year-old Toby Sibbick! The teenager had been on the field less than three minutes but he has, surely, sealed victory.
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GOAL! AFC Wimbledon 4-2 West Ham (Sibbick, 88)
Just as West Ham thought they had survived, after Adrian saved a header from a Wordsworth corner, Wimbledon recycle the ball. It comes wide to the left. Wagstaff feeds Wordsworth, who dinks it in towards the back post. The youngster Sibbick is there in acres of space to nod in.
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87 min: Sibbick wins a corner. Wimbledon are not exactly dying to get men forward, though still commit their centre-halves.
85 min: Connolly cannot carry on. Toby Sibbick replaces the Irishman, who has had a brilliant game despite inevitably fading.
84 min: Mark Noble takes aim from 25 yards, but it’s a Row P job.
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83 min: Connolly does well to stretch the West Ham back line, with the Wimbledon winger freeing the substitute Jake Jervis. But when the ball comes inside, Wimbledon waste it. Still, they could do with forcing West Ham on to the back foot a little more in these final stages. Some of Wimbledon’s players are beginning to look very leggy. They are going to have to hold on tight.
81 min: It is slowly turning into a game of attack v defence, with West Ham sniffing around for an equaliser. Fredericks is penalised for catching Rod McDonald, earning Wimbledon a little respite. West Ham will surely happily take a replay given how shoddily they started this occasion at Kingsmeadow.
78 min: Masuaku is booked – for diving! Wordsworth chases Masuaku inside the box but the West Ham defender goes to ground all too easily, with Anthony Taylor immediately brandishing a yellow card. And the West Ham defender knows he has been caught red-handed, obligingly accepting the referee’s decision.
77 min: Antonio has been relentless for West Ham since being pushed further forward in this second half.
76 min: Oshilaja has been brilliant, putting in a real skipper’s shift for the hosts. He buys a throw-in out of Masuaku down the right flank and AFC Wimbledon earn another chance to pile on the pressure. Tennai Watson does brilliantly, skinning the defender but the Reading loanee is arguably too honest, desperately trying to stabilise himself after being clipped by Masuaku. West Ham survive, but that was another example of how Wimbledon are determined to not roll over just yet.
75 min: Kwesi Appiah is replaced by Jake Jervis.
73 min: Wimbledon pour forward and Oshilaja does superbly to win a corner. But West Ham clear their line before piling forward themselves, hitting straight back at them, only for Connolly to slide in and steal the ball back. Wimbledon are not shot yet.
GOAL! AFC Wimbledon 3-2 West Ham (Anderson, 72)
Felipe Anderson hammers it inside Ramsdale’s near post. The net ripples as Anderson curls a free-kick through the Wimbledon wall and beyond the on-loan goalkeeper. Everybody was expecting Anderson to whip it into the far corner, but the Brazilian gives Ramsdale the eyes and bends it in the opposite side. West Ham have been a different beast this half.
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70 min: Nightingale clips Snodgrass on the edge of the box. It is an inviting area for West Ham, 20 yards from goal, suited to a right-footer. Felipe Anderson fancies it. Ramsdale readies his wall.
69 min: West Ham accelerate up the other end and win a corner through Felipe Anderson. The Brazilian had switched on the afterburners when faced with Tennai Watson, who is no slouch himself. But Ramsdale punches the corner clear and Nightingale tidies things up.
68 min: Wordsworth stands up a free-kick towards the back post where an unmarked Oshilaja has snuck in. But the Wimbledon captain ends up scooping his cross out for a goal-kick.
66 min: Fredericks is booked for catching Appiah on the follow through. Meanwhile, a stat: no Premier League player has scored more goals as a substitute in all competitions this season than West Ham’s Lucas Pérez (four – level with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang).
65 min: Tom Soares replaces Mitch Pinnock. Wimbledon will miss the option of the latter’s long-throw but Soares, once of Crystal Palace, should offer a bit of nous. It’s going to be a nervy final 25 minutes. Can a rejuvenated West Ham rescue a replay?
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64 min: Michail Antonio, pushed up to right wing after Fredericks’ introduction at the interval, is seeing more of the ball. He twists and turns inside before lashing a left-footed effort just wide.
62 min: Ramsdale gathers an ambitious cross from the left by Lucas Perez. West Ham are showing more urgency at least.
60 min: Another uncomfortable few moments for Ogbonna and Adrian in the West Ham defence. Wordsworth tries to wallop the ball goalwards but his own team-mate gets in the way. West Ham have solved their problems going forward but they look very vulnerable at the back.
59 min: Perez tries to stab a Snodgrass corner goalwards – but he cannot keep his effort down this time. West Ham are – slowly – trying to turn it on. They made a meal of the first 46 minutes but there is only one team in the ascendency at the moment. Fredericks and Anderson have been very lively.
GOAL! AFC Wimbledon 3-1 West Ham (Perez, 57)
Lucas Perez smashes in after Ramsdale makes a brilliant save to deny Antonio after a brilliant low ball by the overlapping Fredericks. The latter has been superb in the 12 or so minutes since he has been on the field. A bit of pinball sees the ball drop at the feet of the Spaniard at an awkward but Perez spears an arrowed effort into the bottom corner. Pellegrini’s body language has not changed an inch. Maybe this is just the start. Wimbledon have to keep being positive rather than invite pressure.
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54 min: Hernandez skies his effort! West Ham pop the ball about, with Anderson again influential. The ball is slid into the Mexican by Fredericks, who has been lively, but the striker gets it all wrong.
53 min: Anderson slides in Fredericks, and West Ham win a corner. That was a cute little move. But they have helluva job on their hands to turn this around. Wimbledon are supercharged, West Ham still to truly get going.
50 min: Lucas Perez rolls around after being caught by Nightingale. He is soon up and moving, thankfully for West Ham, who have of course used up all of their substitutes at the interval.
49 min: Kingsmeadow is bouncing.
GOAL! AFC Wimbledon 3-0 West Ham (Wagstaff, 46)
Ah, that was not the plan. This half was supposed to be the start of the West Ham comeback, fresh from a triple change. But before Felipe Anderson, the club’s £36m record signing has even had the chance to touch the ball, Scott Wagstaff adds his second of the evening, stabbing home a volley after more good work by Connolly. A big scratch of the head for Manuel Pellegrini.
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46 min: a triple West Ham change. Anderson, Fredericks and Lucas Perez replace Diangana, Carroll and Obiang. Pellegrini had to do something.
Vinnie Jones, a FA Cup winner with Wimbledon in 1988, says: “It looks like the West Ham kit-man told the West Ham players not to crease up their shirts or get it too dirty tonight, because they are not really having a go. The second half is going to be different, the boys are going to run out of steam a little bit and it only takes a bit of magic from a Premier League player.”
Half-time: AFC Wimbledon 2-0 West Ham
Goals by Kwesi Appiah and Scott Wagstaff give AFC Wimbledon a two-goal cushion at the break. And the reality is they could have had more too. Their performance has been high-energy, full of gusto compared with West Ham, who have been painfully flat. Woeful. West Ham have not only not turned up, but they’ve gifted possession away time and again. They cannot play much worse than that in the second half. Wimbledon will, of course, just want more of the same. Wally Downes looks very calm heading down the tunnel. He’s not getting carried away. Not yet.
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45 min: There will be one added minute. Wimbledon want another 90 of this. League One’s bottom club have been brilliant. West Ham dire.
44 min: It should be three-nil! A routine ball towards the back post reaches an unmarked Oshilaja. He nods across goal, but nobody can get on the end of it. If they were not already Wimbledon could have been in dreamland then. West Ham are all over the place. They have got what they deserved. Pellegrini surely has to change things at half-time.
43 min: Another plucky West Ham foul, another Wimbledon free-kick. Credit to Wimbledon, who have harried the life out of West Ham.
GOAL! AFC Wimbledon 2-0 West Ham (Wagstaff, 41)
Scott Wagstaff doubles the hosts’ lead. Pedro Obiang will not want to it again. Wagstaff and Appiah team up to hound Obiang out of possession before driving at goal. Faced one-on-one with the West Ham goalkeeper, the former Charlton winger coolly slots home. Adrian, meanwhile, looks close to tears. He’s desperately trying to gee up the troops. There are a few heads in hands down on the West Ham bench, none more so than Señor Pellegrini.
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39 min: Ogbonna with another silly foul, on Appiah this time. Mitch Pinnock whips it in before Wordsworth lets fly from distance. It is a real piledriver, but West Ham get a body in the way. Manuel Pellegrini’s side have been nothing short of hopeless, really. They have barely strung a pass together. Wimbledon have been brilliant.
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37 min: The Wombles are making a real racket. It was carnage in the stands as Kingsmeadow celebrated that Appiah strike. Down at the other end Aaron Ramsdale, the on-loan goalkeeper, clenched his fist as Connolly wheeled off towards the opposite corner in celebration. A delightful kind of pandemonium.
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GOAL! AFC Wimbledon 1-0 West Ham (Appiah, 34)
A kind deflection helps the ball past Adrian, but the hosts get a well-deserved goal. Kwesi Appiah’s shot is diverted by Angelo Ogbonna’s big toe and that’s enough to bamboozle Adrian, who had already gone to ground. Appiah, who scored a last-minute winner in the third round, has given Wimbledon the lead. West Ham cannot say it had not been coming. Carroll lost possession, Oshilaja then fed Wordsworth who, in turn, played a cute ball through to the Ghanaian forward. The rest is history.
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31 min: Masuaku feeds Obiang inside. The midfielder looks up, has a pop ... and it arrows towards the corner flag. That’s dreadful.
29 min: Oshilaja, the Wimbledon skipper, sends a West Ham ball thumping back where it came from. It has been relatively comfortable at the back for Wally Downes’s side but he will know as well as anyone that his team need to strike while the iron’s hot, and all that. Connolly has given Masuaku a real headache down the Hammers’ left.
27 min: Adrian gladly wraps his hands around the ball after another slick AFC Wimbledon move. Appiah frees Connolly down the right flank, who stands up an inviting cross for Pinnock, at the back post. The winger rises highest but cannot get enough power on it trouble the West Ham goalkeeper. Still, another encouraging move by the hosts.
25 min: Pedro Obiang looks for Snodgrass but his pass goes astray. It has been that kind of night so far for West Ham. Wimbledon have done everything but score. They flew out of the blocks.
23 min: Snodgrass tugs at Connolly’s shirt. The young Irishman – Wally Downes’s first signing – is frustrating the life out of West Ham. Pinnock swings it in but West Ham win a goal-kick.
21 min: Carroll attempts a cross-field ball ... but plays it straight to Mitch Pinnock. That was poor. And then AFC Wimbledon bounce on to the counterattack, with the lively Connolly whipping in another devious ball into the box. Ogbonna swings a hopeful leg at it, swiping into thin air but West Ham get away with it. Wimbledon have them on the ropes.
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20 min: Snodgrass springs into action down the left flank, twisting inside Watson before overrunning the ball. It ends up falling for Hernandez just inside the area but his effort is relatively tame. West Ham are beginning to find their feet, but they have looked a little clumsy when it’s mattered.
16 min: Carroll tees up Hernandez, heading down for the Mexican who is lurking on the edge of the box. The striker has to hit it first time but gets it all wrong. Carroll did well, cushioning a lofted cross into the path of his strike-partner. West Ham, meanwhile, look nervy at the back, with Ogbonna hurrying to keep Wagstaff at bay. Pinnock lashes in another long-throw, but Adrian gathers Connolly’s flicked header.
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15 min: Connolly wins the ball out on the right after Snodgrass gifts away possession cheaply. Pinnock takes over the baton but his attempted curling effort from the edge of the box is always sailing over.
14 min: Dylan Connolly is causing real problems down the right flank. Issa Diop hacks clear another dangerous ball into the box.
12 min: Hernandez strikes a post! Snodgrass picks the ball up centrally, before freeing Hernandez who made a clever run off the full-back Tennai Watson. But the Wimbledon defender clawed back at his man to get a touch on Hernandez’s strike, which is diverted on to the woodwork. Out of nowhere, West Ham come alive. They’ve underwhelmed so far.
10 min: Terell Thomas is again involved in the box and the defender does brilliantly to keep the ball in play. West Ham are sleeping, with Adrian in no man’s land as Thomas hooks a high ball back into the box from the byline. Connolly, a new arrival from Dundalk, was waiting totally unmarked in the six-yard box. West Ham totally switched off there.
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9 min: Wimbledon win a free-kick on the edge of the area, with Angelo Ogbonna blocking off Dylan Connolly, who was en route into the 18-yard box. Connolly has had a very lively start, with his direct running causing havoc. Pinnock flashes the free-kick in with a left-footed bending effort but it is a good, strong save by Adrian, the West Ham goalkeeper.
7 min: Anthony Taylor, the referee, plays a clever advantage after a Wagstaff foul on halfway but West Ham fail to seize the opportunity.
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6 min: Pinnock’s corner is cleared but when the ball is helped into the box, Terell Thomas juggles the ball away from Issa Diop superbly before shooting wide. He did the hard part, wriggling away from his marker but the defender looks a bit lost in the opposition box and his effort is wild. Kwesi Appiah screams that he was lurking to take over but, in fairness, Thomas had to have a pot. It would have been some goal.
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5 min: Nightingale slides in Connolly, who flashes a dangerous ball across the box. It’s a delicious ball that bounces across the six-yard box and West Ham eventually clear their lines. AFC Wimbledon win a corner ..
4 min: Snodgrass nudges the ball in to Masuaku, but the wing-back runs into trouble in the shape of Reading loanee Tennai Watson.
3 min: Mitch Pinnock’s long-throw is not dealt with and Nightingale rifles a shot from the edge of the box. It’s deflected and Obiang takes all of the sting out of it. That’s a weapon that West Ham will have to be ready for.
2 min: A brilliant, hanging free-kick by Robert Snodgrass – but Andy Carroll’s free header is wayward. It ends up falling back for the kick-taker but Snodgrass cannot get his effort on target. A lively start by the visitors.
2 min: A positive start by West Ham, with Antonio back on the front foot down the right allowing Hernandez to win a corner.
1 min: Michail Antonio, again operating from right-back, tries to play the ball forward but the hosts snuff it out. West Ham switch it down the left, where Arthur Masuaku will himself probe.
Peeeeeeeeeep!
Andy Carroll and Javier Hernandez get us under way.
Here we go, then. Can AFC Wimbledon mirror Millwall’s heroics at Kingsmeadow and send West Ham packing? Let’s see.
Meanwhile, Everton are out of the FA Cup:
For all of the hot air around Marko Arnautovic, West Ham remain in talks with Celta Vigo over Maxi Gómez, whose contract contains a £43.5m release clause. The Spanish club, however, are battling relegation from La Liga and want to keep the 22-year-old. Intriguingly, one possibility could be a deal being done in this window before loaning him back until the end of the season. Any deal would eclipsing the club-record £36m they paid Lazio for Felipe Anderson in the summer. Gomez, part of the Uruguay squad at last summer’s World Cup, joined Celta in 2017 on a five-year deal.
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A heartening pre-match tale, courtesy of none other than Jesse Lingard. A bunch of AFC Wimbledon fans were in with a shot of winning £500 in a penalty shootout on Soccer AM this morning, only for the Manchester United winger – supposedly giving them a helping hand – to miss a crucial spot-kick, leaving the supporters out of pocket. But Lingard made a bee-line for the group of fans after the show, and promptly handed over £600 of his own money in the Sky studios car park. Lovely.
Team news news: so, no Marko Arnautovic for West Ham, but Manuel Pellegrini names a strong side nevertheless, including Javier Hernandez and Andy Carroll. Declan Rice is rested, on the bench alongside Felipe Anderson. The former Charlton winger Scott Wagstaff starts for AFC Wimbledon, as does the Bournemouth loanee Aaron Ramsdale.
Team news!
AFC Wimbledon: Ramsdale, Watson, Thomas, Oshilaja, McDonald, Nightingale, Wordsworth, Connolly, Pinnock, Appiah, Wagstaff
Subs: McDonnell, Sibbick, Garratt, Trotter, Soares, Jervis, Pigott
West Ham United: Adrian, Antonio, Diop, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Noble, Obiang, Snodgrass, Diangana, Hernandez, Carroll
Subs: Fabianski, Fredericks, Rice, Coventry, Holland, Anderson, Perez
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Preamble
This one has the scent of a proper upset. After near-misses at New Meadow and the Riverside earlier, AFC Wimbledon, at the wrong end of League One, up against a Jeykll and Hyde West Ham United – a team dining at the top table – has the makings of a cup classic. This is AFC Wimbledon’s first FA Cup fourth-round outing since their reformation in 2002 – though they have lost all their previous two FA Cup meetings with Premier League opposition (2014-15 v Liverpool and 2017-18 v Tottenham Hotspur).
“I think going head-to-head with a Premier League team you’re going to come unstuck nine times out of 10,” says manager Wally Downes. “So you can’t go gung-ho. But I’ve never been involved in a football match when one of the teams didn’t have an opportunity.” The history does not bode well for West Ham either, having been eliminated from two of their last four FA Cup ties against League One teams, including a 2-0 at Wigan Athletic last season. In terms of team news, the talented Wimbledon teenager Anthony Hartigan is suspended, while Adrian will start in goal for the visitors. Marko Arnautovic was not expected to be involved, though it will be interesting to see if Manuel Pellegrini does throw the forward, fresh from a remarkable U-turn after throwing his toys of the pram, in at Kingsmeadow as something of a punishment.
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