Avram Grant is up for the battle with Birmingham City on Tuesday night.
The manager, who had his players back in early on Sunday to prepare, stands on the brink of guiding the club to a first League Cup final since 1981, with a tricky two-legged tie against their Midlands rivals standing in the way. The first leg is at home before the Hammers travel to the Blues for the return on Wednesday 26 January.
Morale was boosted with the Hammers making it three wins and two draws from six games with Saturday's 2-0 home success against Barnsley in the FA Cup. "This recent period has been the best of our season," said Grant. "We slipped up at Newcastle [last Wednesday] but we have had some good results over the past few weeks and played good football."
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The prize for the Barnsley win - secured through Jonathan Spector and Frederic Piquionne goals - was a date with Nottingham Forest on fourth-round weekend on 29/30 January but Grant is more immediately looking to the Carling Cup tie on Tuesday - and only after that will he worry about Saturday's visit of high-fliers Arsenal in the Barclays Premier League. A good night under the lights could act as a spark for the London derby."It is important that we get an advantage against Birmingham. It will be a tough game. They are not easy to play against but they will think the same about us. It will be a game of a lot of emotion."
Grant could recall the likes of Danny Gabbidon, Matthew Upson, Scott Parker, Freddie Sears, Carlton Cole and Piquionne to his starting lineup but was delighted to see man of the match Mark Noble get a welcome 90 minutes under his belt. Lars Jacobsen is cup-tied so Julien Faubert may continue at right-back, although Winston Reid did himself no harm with a solid turn at centre-back on Saturday.
"I am looking forward to it," added Grant. "A semi-final in any competition is a big game. You are just two games from the final. It is exciting and especially the way we have got to this point is something special. We've had a tough route so we deserve to be here.
"The quarter-final win against Man United is a game that no one will forget. We want to have this experience again. It was great when I saw the faces of the fans after beating them. Getting to the semi-finals is good but the final would be better. The players are ready."