By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham United have discovered their opponents for the Carabao Cup third round following last night’s excellent 4-1 win against Southampton.
The draw has been relatively kind to Nuno Espírito Santo’s team, with the Hammers avoiding the big guns involved in European competition and instead being handed a London derby against either Fulham or AFC Wimbledon.
Better still, West Ham have been drawn at home.
Another London Stadium Cup Tie
That means a return to the London Stadium, where the Hammers beat Portsmouth 3-1 in the first round of the competition in front of a record-breaking crowd.
West Ham then faced a considerably tougher-looking second-round assignment after being drawn away to Southampton.
As it turned out, Nuno’s youngsters made rather light work of that one.
The 4-1 victory at St Mary’s saw Josh Ajala score twice, with Taty Castellanos and Jarrod Bowen adding the others as West Ham’s young guns produced a brilliant performance.
The EFL have split the third-round fixtures across the weeks commencing 7 and 14 September because of clashes with UEFA competitions.
Should West Ham progress, the fourth round will follow in October.
Don’t Write Wimbledon Off
Fulham would obviously represent the more difficult-looking fixture on paper, but any of our younger supporters thinking a tie against Wimbledon would be an easy one might want to think again.
It wasn’t all that long ago that I made the trip to Kingston to watch West Ham on the receiving end of a 4-2 thrashing against AFC Wimbledon.
So I’ll certainly not be taking them lightly should they make it through.
For now, though, West Ham can be pretty pleased with the draw.
After the youngsters stole the show at Southampton, Nuno may even be tempted to give them another crack at the competition.
A home London derby and another potentially huge crowd at the London Stadium isn’t a bad reward for their efforts.