THE DATE for West Ham's FA Cup third round tie against Arsenal has been announced and will take place at 4.15pm on Sunday January 3.

The game, which will be screened on ITV, has manager Gianfranco Zola excited, although the Italian is unfazed about the prospect of facing a Premier League rival first up.

“This is a big month with some big games and that will continue in the new year with the FA Cup third round,” Zola told the club's official website. “We have drawn Arsenal, which will get a lot of attention. Maybe we could have been luckier with the draw, but there are no complaints.

“We will deal with it and they will not want to have been drawn against us either. We are at home and we have the chance to go one better after drawing against them in the league here earlier this season. It will be tough but we have to be tougher than them.”