West Ham’s run of tough cup draws continues as we face Aston Villa in the FA Cup third round. The Hammers will head to Villa Park during the weekend of 10–12 January 2025 after Monday night’s draw at Old Trafford, home to defending champions Manchester United.
The draw follows an unfavourable Carabao Cup draw earlier this season, which saw **West Ham** exit at the hands of Liverpool after a thankless away trip to Anfield.
It now seems our bad luck has continued with another trip to the Midlands.
While Unai Emery’s men have been going through something of a sticky patch in the [Premier League](https://www.claretandhugh.info/premier-league-bio/), they currently sit ninth in the reformatted Champions League and are set to face Monaco and Celtic in January. Hopefully, they will be prioritising that competition.
For West Ham, as much as the draw might seem somewhat unfair, the club will hopefully have either turned a corner or appointed a new manager by then, so it’s not a write-off. That said, a home draw against The Dog & Duck would have been preferable to drawing yet another Champions League team away from home.
With the number of away fans currently gaining entry to the London Stadium, I’m not entirely sure the venue will make much difference.