This week sees the third round of the Carling Cup, and the highlight of the draw is a London Derby between Chelsea and West Ham on wednesday night.
When Chelsea were being rescued by Russian money of dubious origins, West Ham were attempting to stall their descent towards the lower leagues by having a fire sale of available talent.
Mainly to Chelsea.
Glen Johnson, Joe Cole and Frank Lampard all face the prospect of playing against their old club to what will be a fairly mixed reception.
As Chelsea assistant manager Steve Clarke puts it “Having spoken to the lads, they are expecting a not very nice reception from the West Ham fans and it is a bit unfortunate because they were all good players for West Ham."
Whether Chelsea play a full strength side remains to be seen as this is the one of the first experiences the new manager Jose Murinho will have of what is generally considered to be the weakest cup competition.
Reagrdless of what Jose chooses to do the Londonist has to admit that it doesnt matter as we're already lost to his fiery continental temperant and smouldering, Portugese good looks.
West Ham are looking ok, 4th in League 1 (or the new-coke-carbonated-soccer-sports-goal-fest-league or whatever it's called these days), but a nice cup run would be a welcome distraction from such prestige games as losing 3-1 to Wigan athletic.
The nice gambling folks at BlueSq still put them at 13-2 though.
Other London clubs line up as follows:
Charlton vs Crystal Palace
Bolton vs Tottenham
Manchester City vs Arsenal
Birmingham vs Fulham
