Chelsea and West Ham through as Spurs exit FA Cup

The youngster came on as a substitute in the 70th minute of the FA Cup fifth round match against Manchester City at the weekend and made an nearly immediate impact, scoring in the 89th minute as his side beat the Citizens 5-1 to move through to the quarter-finals of the tournament.

West Ham United’s Emmanuel Emenike celebrates scoring their fourth goal of the game during the Emirates FA Cup, fifth round match at Ewood Park, Blackburn.

Pellegrini’s side are away to Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League on Wednesday and then take on Liverpool in the League Cup final a week on Sunday.

Speaking after the game Emenike was quoted as telling the official West Ham website: “It’s a really special one for me that I played on Sunday and scored in the FA Cup“. We condemn it and I condemn it strongly and Chelsea will react. It’s never good to lose 5-1, maybe it’s not the best thing to put them in all together but we had no choice.

The east London club’s reward for beating Rovers was a quarter-final away to top-flight rivals Manchester United, who interrupted a poor run of form with a 3-0 win away to third-tier Shrewsbury on Monday.

“We want to progress as far as possible”, said the Hammers boss. West Ham quickly levelled though when Moses’s speculative shot evaded Rovers keeper Jason Steele.

With champions Chelsea mid-table in the Premier League, the FA Cup represents their only chance of domestic honours this season, although they are still in the Champions League last 16, having lost the first leg to Paris St Germain in midweek.

Referee Jon Moss produced a straight red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity, but West Ham manager Slaven Bilic disagreed with the decision and signalled the club’s intention to appeal.

“You can see the options we had from the bench today with [Alex] Song and Manuel [Lanzini] coming on, which is great”. “There is not much left in the league for Chelsea, to be honest, so we focus on the games in the FA Cup“. Payet completed the rout with a fine solo goal after on-loan Nigerian Emenike grabbed a brace.

The Hornets have been one of the surprise packages of the English football season and could well continue that trend if they play at their absolute best in that one.

Chris Taylor was sent off for Blackburn and Cheikhou Kouyate for West Ham, both in the second half.