Aston Villa are all set to play host to West Ham United tonight in the FA Cup third round.
West Ham fans will be hoping that we get the new manager bounce against Aston Villa in the FA Cup, with Graham Potter having come in to replace Julen Lopetegui.
The Hammers have been appalling this season in general, and Potter has already made it clear that his main priority will be to address his side’s defensive deficiencies.
There is undoubtedly a lot of work to be done there!
Hopefully the boys put in a strong performance against Villa tonight, and progress through to the fourth round of the competition.
That would give us all a huge boost.
However, it appears as though we have been dealt some very bad news before the game at Villa Park has even kicked off.
West Ham dealt bad news ahead of Aston Villa FA Cup clash
The challenge of beating Villa away won’t be an easy one, that’s for sure.
And now our task of doing just that seems to have got a whole lot harder.
That’s because Tim Robinson has been named as the referee for the FA Cup clash with Villa, as confirmed by the FA’s official website.
This is a really big blow for the Hammers as far as I’m concerned.
Robinson put in a truly awful showing during our draw with Bournemouth back in February 2024.
The 40-year-old was utterly clueless and proved to be completely off the pace throughout the enmtire game.
He refused to punish any of the Bournemouth players for persistent and rotational fouls, whilst blowing up for virtually every single challenge our players made.
Robinson failed to allow the game to flow and crowned his staggeringly bad performance by failing to award us a spot-kick in the second-half – a decision that was eventually overturned by VAR.
When Mohammed Kudus was brought down, it was the most obvious penalty you will ever see – not for Robinson though.
He was also on VAR duty during out clash with Nottingham Forest at the City Ground last season, and oversaw some truly mind-boggling decisions.
I have never been a fan of Tim Robinson as a referee. He is card happy and has dished out 63 yellows in just 13 games this season (Transfermarkt).
He just poor at his job in my opinion.
And the fact that he has been chosen to referee the West Ham FA Cup clash is bad news for us as far as I’m concerned.
One other interesting point to note is that there will be no VAR at Villa Park tonight, with video technology not coming into play until the fifth round of the competition.
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