Our prediction for this FA Cup match:
All eyes will be on St. Mary’s Stadium when Southampton and West Ham take on each other in the FA Cup last 16. The Saints aim to build on back-to-back wins over Everton and Norwich City, and they must be high on spirits ahead of the visit of West Ham. A man to watch in the home team will be Che Adams, while all McCarthy, Lyanco, and Tella should miss out with injuries.
The Hammers, on the other hand, recorded a hard-fought 1-0 win over Wolves at the weekend, thanks to Tomas Soucek’s goal. Anyhow, we believe that there is a big value in betting on draw as Southampton are tough to beat at home. Andriy Yarmolenko is pushing for recall after missing the Wolverhampton game due to personal reasons, while Masuaku, Coufal, and Ogbonna remain in the recovery room. As always, Michail Antonio will pose a big threat for the opposition back-line.
Highlighted Player (Theo Walcott):
Theo James Walcott is an English football player with roots from Jamaica born on 16th of March 1989 in London. Walcott started his football career for AFC Newbury and after scoring over 100 goals in his first season Southampton signed the young Walcott. After 2 seasons playing for the Saints scoring 4 goals in 21games Arsenal transferred Walcott to London for approximately 12 million GBP where he signed a 1 million GBP per year contract by the age of 17.
Walcott is known for being a very fast right-winger but is able to play as a striker as well. Walcott can be used very effectively to set up a counter attack but is the type of offensive player that is very dependant on the rest of the team.
Despite his young age Walcott made his debut for the English national team in May 2006 and played for over 40 games in the national team already. One of Walcott’s biggest weaknesses are his height (only 173cm) and the fact he get’s injured very quickly. Walcott won the FA Cup in 2013/2014 and 2014/15 with Arsenal and the Community Shield in 2015. During the World Cup in 2014 Walcott was injured.
Highlighted Team (West Ham):
West Ham United are an English football club based in East London. The club was founded in 1895 and it has to be noted that the club’s name was Thames Ironworks back then. The Hammers were playing their home games at Upton Park from 1904 until 2016, when they moved to the Stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
West Ham have won three FA Cup trophies (1964, 1975 and 1980) and they were runners-up in 1923 and 2006. The capital club finished the 1985/1986 England first division campaign in third place in the standings and that is the club’s highest placing in the top flight. West Ham United have strong rivalries with fellow London clubs, but Tottenham Hotspur are considered the club’s main rivals.
A number of top-class players were part of West Ham in the past and the likes of Joe Cole, Carlos Tevez, Paolo Di Canio, Paul Ince, Julian Dicks, Shaka Hislop, Michael Carrick and Slaven Bilic are some of them.