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West Ham United have been drawn an away fixture against Wimbledon, or The New Dons as they are now called, for the second round of the Carabao Cup, or League Cup as most fans refer to it, with the fixture to be played during the week commencing Monday the 27 of August, TV schedules permitting.

Part of Manuel Pellegrini's brief on arrival as the new manager of West Ham United was to run the rule over the club's youth and academy players as well as the senior squad. Youth players, with the exception of Declan Rice, hardly got a look in last season due to the constant battle against relegation, Slaven Billic and then his replacement David Moyes were totally reluctant to throw the youngsters in to desperately fought matches.

Fresh from the televised mauling by liverpool last Sunday, Manuel Pellegrini's West Ham team debut at the naming rights unsponsered London Stadium keen to make amends for the 'brutal' events up at Anfield. A four nill loss would normally force a manager, not least a new manager, to reassess their approach but that is not the Hammers manager's way.

The question was going to come about sooner or later, and it turns out that a controversial decision in the first game week has sparked a discussion as to why VAR won’t be used in the Premier League this season.

No this is not a 'click bate' headline although West Ham fans will think so, news has reached us at The Org regarding Tottenham Hotspur's attempt at extricating themselves from their uncompleted White Hart Lane Stadium dilemma by negotiating to play one game at West Ham United's London Stadium. Hammers london rivals had been expected to play their first game at the new ground on 15th of September against Liverpool but that match has now been switched to Wembley, their following home game against Cardiff on 6th of October has also been moved to Wembley.

Three goals in four minutes either side of half time changed the course of West Ham's Premier League 2 opener against Tottenham at Stevenage tonight, everything was looking like Spurs would win comfortably at the Lamex when they took an early lead through Samuel Shashoua, they created more chances after that and looked likely to add more goals.

An opening fixture at Anfield was hardly a barometer to judge early progress but Hammers have lost more top flight games against Liverpool than any other side and despite spending around £100m on new recruits this was always going to be a difficult match. Pellegrini used five of his new players Fabianski, Ryan Fredericks, Balbuena, Felipe Anderson and Jack Wilshere from the start, Wilshere was isolated in attack, failing to touch the ball in the Liverpool penalty area, and Anderson was withdrawn in the second half after running out of puff.

Liverpool FC: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Gomez, Robertson, Keita, Milner, Wijnaldum, Mane, Salah, Firmino Subs: Karius, Clyne, Fabinho, Henderson, Sturridge, Lallana, Shaqiri
West Ham Utd: Fabianski, Fredericks, Balbuena, Rice, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Noble, Wilshere, Anderson, Arnautovic, Antonio Subs: Adrian, Zabaleta, Snodgrass, Obiang, Hernandez, Yarmolenko, Diop

The time for pontificating is over as the new season begins for 'new look' West Ham with a tricky opening fixture against Liverpool at what will be a 'pumped up' Anfield Stadium. The Pool are one of the few teams to have spent more money during the transfer window than the Hammers, they've pushed the boat out for a replacement keeper and centre back, the only fly in their ointment is the amount of players who have only recently returned to training due to the presence of so many of their players at The World Cup in Russia.

With the closing of the transfer window for Premier League clubs to buy or trade with each other the only deals that can now be done are outgoings to either non-UK based clubs or loan deals to those in the EFL and below. Back in the dark days following relegation Hammers fans will remember what is was like to be hoping for good deals or 'exotic' loans from 'top' teams when the transfer window closed for Premier League teams, players viewed as suplus to requirements represented an ideal way for cash strapped lower league managers to strengthen their squads and give hope to their fans.