OPINION

West Ham went crashing out of the EFL cup courtesy of Tottenham on Wednesday as Mauricio Pochettino’s side cruised to a 3-1 victory.

Spurs took the lead in the 16th minute of the game through Son Heung-min and didn’t really look like ever losing their latest clash with their London rivals.

Son doubled Spurs’ lead before Lucas Perez pulled goal back for the Hammers to make it 2-1, but it took only four minutes for Fernando Llorente to restore his side’s two goal cushion and ensure Spurs won the game 3-1.

Given that there were only a few positive to be found for Manuel Pellegrini, the Hammers manager likely learned a lot from watching his side exit a potential winnable contest for them.

Forever West Ham have rounded up three things learned about the Hammers from their display against Tottenham:

Diangana was Hammers’ MOTM

Grady Diangana is nowhere near the finished article but he was a sensation against Spurs on Wednesday night. The 20-year-old winger was easily the Hammers’ Man of the Match as he constantly attempted to terrorise Spurs’ defence. Diangana pretty much had the better of Spurs’ right-back Serge Aurier for a notable portion of the game and probably was the only player to cause Spurs fans to fret. The 20-year-old played several sublime passes and will no doubt have convinced Pellegrini that he deserves to stay in the first-team for as long as his excellent form continues. In fact Diangana’s performance showed up a lot of his senior teammates on Wednesday as not only did he look great, he looked willing to work hard for the cause.

Fredericks’ pace underused weapon

Ryan Fredericks hasn’t exactly cemented himself in the Hammers’ first-team since joining from Fulham in the summer to say the least. It was easy to see why that was during his rare chance to feature against Spurs, as at times he looked easily rattled by the prospect of having to defend his side’s goal from Tottenham’s high-profile attackers. Yet as he grew into the game, which he did, it was also very noticeable that his blistering pace could be a weapon for the Hammers going forward. He might not be the most defensively sound player, which is concerning considering he’s right-back, but his pace when going forward clearly would frighten any team in the Premier League.

Hernandez must be sold ASAP

Javier Hernandez continues to struggle and it’s clear that he just isn’t going to excel at the Hammers. There was hope that Pellegrini’s arrival in the summer would see the club able to get the best from the forward but that just isn’t the case. During his side’s 3-1 defeat to Spurs, he didn’t seem willing to run around and try to carve out his own chances when his teammates were struggling to provide him with good service. Given that he is not guaranteed to feature regularly, you would think that he would be working his socks off to impress but that simply wasn’t the case. Hernandez, who earns a staggering £140,000-a-week at the London Stadium (Source: Spotrac), must be sold by the club as soon as possible as a result of him not playing well and not showing any signs that the situation is going to change. The Hammers need to get the wasteful big-earner off their books in order to bring in better talent.