Kurt Zouma, Vladimír Coufal and Lucas Paquetá return to the West Ham United team for Sunday’s Emirates FA Cup third-round tie with Bristol City at London Stadium.
Captain Zouma has recovered from a knee injury, Coufal is well again after overcoming illness, and Paquetá is available after recovering from the calf injury he suffered at Arsenal on 28 December.
Zouma has been an FA Cup runner-up on three occasions, as he was part of the Chelsea squads which were defeated by Arsenal in 2017 and 2020 and Leicester City in 2021. Emerson was also an unused substitute for Chelsea in the finals of 2020 and 2021.
Skipper Zouma, Coufal and Paquetá come into the side to face the Robins, with Angelo Ogbonna, Ben Johnson and Saïd Benrahma the three players dropping to the substitutes’ bench.
A fourth change from the midweek goalless Premier League draw at home to Brighton & Hove Albion sees Łukasz Fabiański, who lifted the FA Cup a decade ago with Arsenal, keep goal, with Alphonse Areola named among the nine potential replacements.
Coufal won the Czech Cup with both Slovan Liberec and Slavia Prague prior to his transfer to West Ham, while fellow starter Tomáš Souček did likewise twice with Slavia.
Edson Álvarez has also tasted domestic cup success in the Netherlands, having won the KNVB Cup with Ajax in 2021.
Fabiański appears in the FA Cup for the 22nd time in his career, but just the third for the Hammers, having played in the tournament once for Swansea City and on 16 occasions for Arsenal.
On the flip side, Dinos Mavropanos makes his FA Cup debut this afternoon, partnering Zouma at the heart of the defence, with Coufal and Emerson in the full-back positions.
Álvarez and Souček will be joined in midfield by James Ward-Prowse, who scored on his FA Cup debut for Southampton in a third-round win at Coventry City exactly eleven years ago today, on 7 January 2012! He has since gone on to play in the competition 29 times and scored in the Saints’ third-round wins over Crystal Palace last season, Shrewsbury Town in 2021 and Fulham in 2018.
The front three will consist of Paquetá, Pablo Fornals and leading scorer Jarrod Bowen, who has netted 13 times in all competitions this season. Bowen has scored three goals in the FA Cup for West Ham – one in last season’s fourth-round win at Derby County and in the third and fourth-round victories over Leeds United and Kidderminster Harries in 2022.
On the bench, Areola, Ogbonna, Johnson and Benrahma are joined by Aaron Cresswell, Conor Coventry, Maxwel Cornet, Danny Ings and Divin Mubama.
West Ham United: Fabiański, Coufal, Zouma ©, Mavropanos, Emerson, Álvarez, Souček, Ward-Prowse, Fornals, Paquetá, Bowen
Subs: Areola (GK), Johnson, Cresswell, Ogbonna, Coventry, Benrahma, Cornet, Ings, Mubama
Bristol City: O'Leary, Tanner, Vyner, Dickie, Pring, Williams, Gardner-Hickman, Knight ©, Mehmeti, Bell, Conway
Subs: Bajic (GK), Nelson, Knight-Lebel, James, King, Cornick, Weimann, Wells
Referee: Graham Scott
