Out of the League Cup again. A competition that is coming up to 30-years of us not winning.
I have always had a love hate relationship with the competition.
On one hand, it is a trophy, a trip to Wembley. On the other, it is the least important of the 4 trophies we are chasing and if you do not win it, you have just added more games to an already heavy schedule.
The best comment I read on or exit was “for Arsenal, it was one of our least important games of the season, for West Ham, it was their most important”.
And this translated on the pitch as we put out a nearly full 2nd XI whilst West Ham put out their strongest – Gabriel and Ben White are the only two man gauranteed a start for us week in week out.
I do enjoy watching their bi-polar fans. They really are a rollercoaster to watch on social media. Probably the most reactionary fanbase out there.
When they lose a game, everything is doom and gloom. The stadium is horrible, Moyes awful and should be sacked, the players not good enough. Win a game and it is a cauldron of a stadium, Moyes masterclass and the team is better than last year.
For clarity, the London Stadium is the worst in the Premier League. It is not a football stadium. It is an athletic stadium that they play football in.
“Champions of Europe, you will never sing that” sums them up. Winning a European trophy does not make them Champions of Europe. And if it doesn, we have won 2 in our history.
They will claim that chant and talking about West Ham being massive is “just banter”, but I think some of the Mockney boys genuinely have delusions of grander and think they are a massive club.
Lsot against Brentford on Saturday, and it will be back to doom and gloom and calling for the managers head in Essex.
Meanwhile, we march on in our title race.
Between the October and November international breaks, we have played / are playing twice a week. 7 games in 21 days. West Ham is the least important fixture on this list:
Saturday: Chelsea (A)
Tuesday: Sevilla (A)
Saturday: Sheffield United (H)
Wednesday: West Ham (A)
Saturday: Newcastle (A)
Wednesday: Sevilla (H)
Saturday: Burnley (H)
Now yes, West Ham have a similar workload to us, but they have been shuffling the pack in Europe – a week ago Moyes made 7-changes as his team lost away to Olympiakos.
Moyes chose that game to give his first team a break, we decided the League Cup will be the best.
If we beat Newcastle on Saturday at St James Park, then the League Cup sacrifice will be worth it.
I feel like the League Cup this season will be won by one of those mid-table teams – Chelsea, Newcastle, West Ham. They are the sides that are not looking at top 4 so can take the minor competition more seriously. It might also be their best chance to get into Europe next season.
We have bigger fish to fry, and join Manchester City and Totteham out of the competition. I wonder when was the last time that the quarter finals of the League Cup did not contain any of the top 3 in the Premier League?
The fact that Newcastle is tomorrow shows why it was important to shuffle the pack on Wednesday. We all would have moaned had Bukayo Saka et al played, and one of them picked up an injury.
On to Newcastle…
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Restore love…..
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