West Ham have, on paper at least, a favourable chance of securing FA Cup progress this weekend.

Such is the depth of the crisis at the club at the moment, even a victory wouldn’t instantly lift the mood. A defeat, however, is just not worth thinking about.

What is your FAVOURITE West Ham FA Cup memory?

Di Canio v Barthez, perhaps?

West Ham should be slight favourites given opponents QPR sit midtable in the Championship, even if an away win would hardly be the greatest shock in the world.

While pundit Chris Sutton hasn’t quite gone that far, he does see a victory on the cards.

Chris Sutton backs West Ham to beat QPR

Sutton has delivered his predictions for the FA Cup third round in his BBC Sport column.

The former Chelsea striker tipped West Ham to beat QPR and progress into the fourth round, the draw for which will be made on Monday.

He did, however, make a revealing comment on the London Stadium. He believes that it simply doesn’t offer much in the way of home advantage, given the several issues supporters have with it.

“This is a must-win for West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo and, let’s face it, they might sack him anyway even if he gets past QPR,” he wrote.

Out of 10, how CONFIDENT are you that Nuno can still save West Ham?

Beating QPR in the FA Cup would be a start…

“I don’t think home advantage helps the Hammers, who suffered a catastrophic defeat against Forest at the London Stadium on Tuesday. I’m not sure how many of their fans will turn up for this game, and the ones who do are not going to be in a good mood either.

“But while West Ham have been very poor recently, they still have some good players and they should surely still see off a mid-table Championship team on their own patch.

“QPR have been knocked out in the third round of the FA Cup more times – 52 – than any other side since the current format of the competition started 100 years ago.

“I am going for them to suffer defeat number 53, and for Nuno to survive a little bit longer.”

QPR’s scary record against West Ham in the FA Cup

How much one takes from head-to-head records that span across several years is a personal choice.

Still, it is perhaps worth mentioning that QPR have beaten West Ham in their last three FA Cup games against each other, the last of which came back during the 1994-95 campaign.

Furthermore, West Ham haven’t got through the third round in two seasons now, having previously gone beyond it for six consecutive campaigns.

Nuno is under huge pressure at West Ham and while a win is unlikely to lift it, a defeat would only make things an awful lot worse.