Forum | General Discussion

West Ham: Fabianski, Cresswell, Diop, Balbuena, Fredericks, Sanchez, Anderson, Wilshere, Antonio , Snodgrass, Arnoutovic
Subs: Adrian, Obiang, Chicharito, Yarmolenko, Rice, Noble ,Rice ,Zabaleta

Wolves: Patrício, Bennett, Coady ,Boly, Doherty, Moutinho, Neves, Castro, Hélder, Jota, Jiménez Subs: Gibbs-White Ruddy, Saïss, Vinagre, Hause, Bonatini,Traoré.

Hammers have been drawn against League 2 Macclesfield in the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup, sorry but we have to call it the Elk Cup. The match to be played at the london Stadium will be scheduled at a date as yet to be confirmed, the fixtures will be played during the week commencing the 24th of September.

Could have been worse!

Here is the draw in full:
West Bromwich Albion v Crystal Palace
Arsenal v Brentford
Burton Albion v Burnley
Wycombe Wanderers v Norwich City
Oxford Utd v Manchester City
West Ham Utd v Macclesfield
Millwall v Fulham
Liverpool v Chelsea
AFC Bournmouth v Blackburn Rovers
Preston North End v Middlesbrough
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Leicester City
Tottenham Hotspur v Watford
Blackpool v Queens Park Rangers
Everton v Southampton
Manchester Utd v Derby County
Nottingham Forest v Stoke City

Hammers fans will be relieved to hear the good news coming out of the Rush Green training ground with regards to the fitness of 'main man' Marko Arnoutovic, the striker pulled up short during the 3-1 loss at the Emirates and was taken off as a precautionary measure, the fact that West Ham's performance dipped markedly after his withdrawal has not gone unnoticed. It is therefore good news for Manuel Pellegrini as he looks to get his first points as Hammers manager in the bag as his team take on newly promoted and highly fancied Wolves at the London Stadium.

The direction that El Pel wants to take the team in is pretty obvious, and given time supporters will be treated to attacking attractive football, the only issue is time, nowadays everything is so 'social media' orientated that as soon as a player breaks wind it is reported! The fact is Hammers need time to roll out the new look team and like it or not fans have just got to go along with the 'project'.

It is highly unlikely that Mark Noble's 'back injury' will have fixed itself in Pellegrini's mind ahead of the Wolves match, which will enable the 'midfield experiment' to continue because somewhere somehow there are the players in the squad to effectively toughen things up, however tyhere are probably a few 'painful' decisions that the manager has to take if he really wants the team to move forward in his image.

By the end of the international break Hammers starting line up will be totally different from the one that started against Liverpool in this season's opening fixture, certain players will feature less and less, if at all. The Premier League is an unforgiving place for teams to be, especially those lacking pace because that is what the PL is all about, pace and power, that's why people love it the World over!

We'll have further fitness reports later - Ed

Manuel Pellegrini was a happy and to some extent a relieved man as he saw his West Ham team overcome a stalwart and obdurate AFC Wimbledon side in a tense 2nd round Elk Cup tie, the relief element being the fact that Hammers conceded Wimbledon's goal from a set play within the first ninety seconds of the game. Even after going down to ten men the Don's didn't make it easy for their Premier League opponents in any way shape or form, some of their physical nature would not have been tolerated within the safe confines of the 'upper echelon' but this was a full blooded cup tie.

After 'gifting' the home side their goal Hammers set about gaining their equaliser and so began a relentless pursuit of the Don's goal, a task made apparently easier by the dismissal for a second yellow card to their main defender. This should have been the portent of floodgates opening, but it didn't instead Hammers laboured long and hard but couldn't find the killer punch, then up stepped Issa Diop, fresh from a potentially debilitating first team debut against Arsenal during which he unluckily conceeded an own goal, the 21 year old frenchman raced forward and launched a 25 yard swerving screamer in to the back of the net! Not content with that he then crashed a header of the bar 90 seconds later that would have sealed the victory there and then.

Ultimately Hammers had to wait until Angelo Agbonna steered in the second goal before they could relax, and when a largely profiligate Javier Hernandez finally managed to dance past the Don's beleagured defence and slot home the third from an acute angle it was smiles all round for the 500 Hammers fans who had managed to get tickets. It could be argued that the Dons were unlucky to have had their player sent off for what looked like a relatively innocuous challenge on Chicharito, but the home side had set out their stall early doors, and it defintely wasn't cricket!

Several players got a good run out tonight, Cresswell in particular as well as Yarmolenko who might have had a hat trick on another night, as could have Hernandez. A win is a win and make no mistake the happy dressing room 'vibe' will stand the team in good stead. It is indeed a compliment to AFC Wimbledon's commitment that Manuel Pellegrini felt compelled to bring Felipe Anderson on for the yellow carded Pedro Obiang at the beginning of the second half in order to ensure his side's victory over what was after all a League One team.

Whatever way you look at it Hammers are into the next round without having to go through the stress of penalties or the labours of extra time given the new format of the League Cup.- Ed