Hammers breach County lines

Newport County 0 West Ham 2 (Carabao Cup)

It's off to the World's End, our new Lucky pub, with Mystic Matt to watch this one over a pint or two of Camden Pale. Stranglers fan Matt wonders if the Rodneys will be queuing up at Rodney Parade as we are left just hanging around hoping that something better change in the Cup.

Pellegrini plays a strong side of squad players and for the first 20 minutes the Hammers dominate as Fornals hits the post from the edge of the box. The big minus is Antonio pulling up with what looks like a bad hamstring tear.

Then comes a very worrying spell as Newport create several chances and after Diop is muscled off the ball and a cross finds the unmarked Amond who shoots straight at Roberto.

Just as Mystic May and Mystic Matt are agreeing that Jack Wilshere will never again be the player who once outplayed the Barcelona midfield, he goes and scores. It's actually a poor ball from Jack in the first place that sets off the move, as after some farcical dithering from a Newport centre back Wilshere nicks the ball off his toes and runs through to finish well.

The second half sees some more scary moments at the back for the Hammers before a good run down the left from Anderson sets up Fornals for a tap-in. There's still time for West Ham to fail to get a third despite a lot of the ball and Newport to hit the post after sub Coventry is caught out.

But it's job done in what could have been a difficult tie. The worrying thing is that none of the fringe players have done well enough to demand a place. Ajeti hasn't done much apart from have a header over the bar, while Sanchez has a very poor game seemingly unable to play a simple pass. The good thing is that first Hammers' goals should give Wilshere and Fornals some confidence. Let's hope for a decent draw in the next round now.

One Haller of a win for Hammers

Watford 1 West Ham 3

Just the result West Ham needed to get our season going. It was an an ideal start with Lanzini winning a penalty and the returning Mark Noble converting after three minutes. But WHU still can't defend, and Gray promptly equalised just as I was texting Matt with the comment "Early lead — what could possibly go wrong?" 

It's worth noting that Watford had their chances and hit the bar through Deulofeu before Hughes missed a great opportunity at the far post. At the other end end Anderson headed a corner against a post.

But in the second half Antonio provided some speed on the break forcing a good save from Foster and West Ham played a shrewd counter-attacking game. Good work from Arthur Masuaku and Felipe Anderson set up Haller for his first West Ham goal. And then Sebastien obliged with an overhead kick into the net after Antonio headed against the bar. That's the first overhead kick West Ham have scored with since Andy Carroll's belter against Palace.

Interesting to note that Fornals was left on the bench (can he play in the same side as Lanzini?) to give Yarmolenko a game and that WHU still look a much better side with Mark Noble in the team. A much happier weekend. Irons!

From the London Stadium to Thames Ironworks

The London Stadium from the Lea Valley Walk

Enjoyed a West Ham-themed birthday promenade last week exploring the Lea Valley Walk. My journey saw me trek from the London Stadium down to Trinity Buoy Wharf at Leamouth, opposite the site of the old Thames Ironworks shipbuilding yard. 

Following the Lee Navigation from White Post Lane at Hackney Wick, I soon found myself in the surprisingly leafy and peaceful environs beneath the London Stadium. Leaving the stadium behind it's on past the twin locks of Old Ford Lock and the lock-keeper's cottages that were converted into the Big Brother house. One link with West Ham is the site of the converted Percy Dalton's peanut factory — as famously sold on the North Bank.

The old Percy Dalton's peanut factory

After going under several large roads in Stratford the river takes us to the historic Three Mills with its working waterwheels. It was built in 1776 and is the world's largest tidal mill. Then it's on down Bow Creek (avoiding the Limehouse turn to the right), with fine views of Canary Wharf, and on to to Cody Dock, which now has a cafe and number of workspaces — though the silted-up old dock reminds us of how important the River Lea once was as an industrial shipway. 

Sadly the riverside path is closed beyond the dock, but an alternative route takes the pedestrian down a Sweeney-esque road of scrap-metal merchants and back to the Lea at Canning Town.

View of Bow Creek from the Ecology Park

It's certainly worth a look in the Bow Creek Ecology Park, an oasis of green opposite the new multi-coloured tower blocks of City Island. The walk ends at East India Dock and then Trinity Buoy Wharf, once used for testing buoys and lighthouses. There's a cafe with a taxi on the roof here and across the Leamouth lies the site of Thames Ironworks, now a metal company. Strangely, this being hipster land, there's also a ship with orange mushrooms spouting from its roof, possibly a reference to West Ham fans sometimes being kept in the dark and fed on manure. You can then return home from either East India DLR or Canning Town tube.

It's a walk that takes in West Ham's current home and the site of the place where it all began. And on a sunny day it's all rather beautiful, in a post-industrial kind of way. 

Looking across from Trinity Buoy Wharf to the site of Thames Ironworks

Welcome point by the sea for the Hammers

Brighton 1 West Ham 1

In the context of West Ham's terrible record against Brighton, a point and preventing Glenn Murray scoring has to be regarded as a decent result. Particularly as Anderson and Haller (yes, already!) were out injured. Pellegrini dropped Cresswell and Balbuena from the defence and restored Snodgrass and Fornals to the starting line-up, while Chicharito replaced Haller.

Good to see Fabianski have a decent game, with the keeper pulling off fine saves from Stephens and March in the first half and VAR disallowing a goal by Trossard. The Hammers took the lead against the run of play soon after the break. Lanzini made inroads on the left to play a fine ball through to Chicharito who coolly slipped it past the keeper. 

The lead didn't last long, as after a tussle between Murray and Diop, Trossard fired a scorching shot into the Hammers' net. Late on Maupay blazed a great chance over for the hosts, while a determined run by Lanzini set up Snodgrass for a shot that Ryan parried.

Losing four in a row was a terrible start to last season, so at least there is now a point on the board and some encouragement in the form of Lanzini and the enduring poaching ability of Chicharito — though Fornals is still struggling with the pace of the Premier League. WHU need another determined performance at Watford now.

Can West Ham's lightweight midfield dig in away?

One of the worrying aspects of the defeat against Manchester City was that the WHU midfield looked so lightweight. Anderson, Lanzini and Fornals are going to look very good when West Ham are dominating teams, but when we're under the cosh they are easily bypassed. Poor Declan Rice is looking overworked as the only defensive midfielder and it's still not clear if Jack Wilshere can reinvent himself as a deep-lying midfielder. 

Mark Noble makes a good point in his Evening Standard column that City, for all their skill, were also masters of the innocuous tactical foul to break up play last Saturday. We could do with Noble in midfield, though he's not fit for today's game at Brighton. There might even be a case for bringing in Sanchez to restore some solidity early on or for playing Antonio to give the side some physicality. It's going to be a big test of Pellegrini's side against a side that is flying after a 3-0 away win.

Adrian's wall

Great to see Adrian make the penalty shoot-out save that won Liverpool the European Super Cup. He struggled to win the Betway Cup with West Ham, so it must all be a bit of a shock to him, particularly as his last game for West ham was the lamentable 4-2 capitulation at Wimbledon in the FA Cup. It all brought back memories of Adrian scoring a penalty for WHU in that epic shoot-out against Everton. Adrian's extended run in the Liverpool side thanks to Alisson's injury proves the footballing Gods are now on his side — he sat on the bench for every game last season while Fabianski was never once injured. Let's hope he has some good games for 'Pool in the league now — and it's surely a given that he'll have a blinder against West Ham.

Value of Sterling rises as West Ham's currency plummets

West Ham 0 Manchester City 5

It's an early-morning trek to Hackney Wick with daughter Lola and City fan Catherine for the 12.30 kick-off. In a cunning plan to deny Matt a programme there is a mysterious dearth of programme sellers — eventually we find a stall by Block H.

Inside the London Stadium we find Matt wearing last season's second-choice away kit to remind him of the Wimbledon defeat in the FA Cup, plus Fraser, Michael, Lisa and the Clacton contingent of Alison and Scott. Scott predicts a 4-0 home win while I opt for a mere 2-1. Well, you have to be optimistic at the start of a new season. Meanwhile Part-Timer Nigel is at Trieste airport as part of his cycling tour — the closest to Europe he'll get as a WHU fan.

West Ham play reasonably well for half an hour without creating a clear chance. Haller lays the ball off well and Antonio causes a few problems with his strength. There's an early VAR debut as a penalty claim by Lanzini is correctly turned down. Wilshere elects to pass when he should shoot, but at least the Hammers match City initially. There's also a strange VAR red card check for a challenge by Antonio that doesn't even result in a yellow card.

It all falls apart after half an hour. City's Walker speeds past Cresswell with embarrassing ease and crosses for Jesus to score with an instinctive flick. Pellegrini really should have addressed the Hammers' left back problem. 

FIRST ON MATCH OF THE DAY
Fornals comes on for Antonio at the break, but the game rapidly drifts away from the Hammers. De Bruyne skips past Balbuena too easily, Fredericks has had to cover and the unmarked Sterling prods under Fabianski. It looks like it's 3-0 when Sterling crosses for Jesus to score. But after a lengthy VAR debate via the big screen it's ruled out for Sterling's shoulder being marginally offside and the home crowd reacts like it's a goal.

With the crowd roused the Hammers try to get back into the game. Diop heads a corner over when he might have scored. The crucial moment comes as Ederson saves from sub Chicharito's prod goalwards and then races across goal makes a fantastic save to deny Lanzini. 

City, well-marshalled by new signing Rodri, simply wait for their moment on the break. Mahrez plays in Sterling who looks offside. The England man controls instantly and lobs in with some class. Another VAR pause ensues and it turns out that he's just onside even if two inactive City players are offside

Heads go down and the Irons lack leadership without Noble. There are huge gaps between attack and defence and Rice is overworked defensively in a team of number tens. The isolated Haller looks increasingly frustrated as City break at will. A terrible kick from Fabianski sees Diop panic and give away a penalty. Aguero's effort is saved only for VAR to spot that Rice has encroached before clearing the rebound from Fabianski's save. Aguero buries the re-taken penalty. At least City fan Catherine is enjoying it, even if she's not allowed to cheer.

It's five in added time as Haller is caught in possession and Sterling gets between Diop and Cresswell to poke home after the badly-positioned Fabianski has presented an inviting target. "At least we'll be first on Match of the Day," quips a fan behind us. And the new home shirts do look quite nice.

Mystic Matt remains relatively resigned to the defeat — perhaps confused by the question of should he be abusing ref Mike Dean or VAR judge David Coote? He does sensibly query why Chicharito is allowed to fire a late free kick over the bar when he's never scored from outside the box in his career.

"We go 20th!" texts Nigel, now in Munich. To take the positives, Fraser does manage to get us to the boat bar by the giant swans on the River Lea, which serves bottles of Doom Bar and pints of San Miguel (sadly there's no hemlock) and isn't too crowded. 

A worrying start, even if it was Man City. We need to get something from the next two away games before the relegation six-pointer against Norwich. Things can only get better.

PLAYER RATINGS: Fabianski 4; Fredericks 4, Diop 4, Balbuena 4, Cresswell 4; Anderson 5 (Chicharito 5), Rice 6, Wilshere 5 (Snodgrass 5), Lanzini 5, Antonio 5 (Fornals 4); Haller 5.

Deadline day deals: Ajeti jets in, Grady goes out and Big Andy takes goals to Newcastle

It's been a decent transfer window, on paper at least. Swiss roller Albian Ajeti has jetted in to sign for £8m from Basel and will provide back-up for Haller. At 22 he's a good age and at least WHU have not made the mistake of signing just older players as they did two years ago. Meanwhile Grady Diangana has gone on loan to West Brom which makes sense. He'll get more game time under a manager who knows him in Slaven Bilic and will come back a better player. While I'm pleased by the romantic return of Andy Carroll to Newcastle. Hopefully he won't be out on the Toon too much though not sure what Billi will make of the Bigg Market. In fact, knowing the curse of West Ham, AC will undoubtedly play 38 games and be their player of the season…

Hammers sign Portugeezer

More progress at WHU with the signing of 18-year-old defender Goncalo Cardoso from Boavista. At £2.7m he's one for the future and the teenager provides welcome competition for Diop, Balbuena, Ogbonna and the fit-again Winston Reid. With Harry Maguire going for £80m its clearly worth taking a punt on a young defender with potential. And speaking of that Maguire fee (why didn't West Ham try to sign him after Hull were relegated? He had a great game in the 1-0 defeat where The Post was the man of the match), Issa Diop is now starting to look like a massive bargain for a 'mere' £22m.

What fresh Haller is this?

Roving correspondent Mystic Matt reports on Saturday's Betway Cup match…

West Ham 2 Athletic Bilbao 2

It is the most West Ham start ever to the season at the  London Stadium: 74 seconds into his home debut, record signing Sebastian Haller smashes into his own net trying to defend a half-cleared corner needlessly given away by Ryan Fredericks. It was his first touch. 

The day had started with a new menu at the Best Caff, including avocado in a bid to entice the fickle North London quinoa burger crowd. Although the ciabatta was off, which would have had them muttering into their mung bean lattes. 

Scott with a collector's item programme

At the ground, there are 38,000 proper fans in attendance, including Fraser. There are no programmes anywhere, and a steward thinks she knows why: "I expect they've not printed enough." Scott was there early enough to grab this collector's item.

We've started with Haller ahead of an exciting attacking trio of Felipe Anderson, Manuel Lanzini and Pablo Fornals, who is excellent on his debut, although he's replaced at half-time. Declan Rice and Jack Wilshere are the pivots, with Issa Diop, The General and Captain Cresswell in front of the heavily tattooed Roberto, with Lukasz Fabianski missing. We concede a second after 15 minutes, the dangerous Inaki Williams attacking a ball cut back from the byline as the defence doze. This is Man City's archetypal goal, which doesn't bode well for Saturday.

ARE YOU STOKE IN DISGUISE?

The Bilbao fans, dressed in Stoke's home strip, are basqueing in the August sunshine. I haven't seen fans in red and white stripes so happy since Rory Delap was taking long throws at the Britannia. But the team, in a stylish green away kit, then concede two in 90 seconds. Haller and Fornals with an overhead kick set up Lanzini for a close-range finish, then Wilshere sweeps home from the edge of the area - his first goal for the club - superbly set up by Haller.

At this point, after the midweek 5-3 win over Hertha Berlin, there's been 12 goals in 112 minutes, a rate of scoring so high even Fraser can't complain. There seem certain to be more goals, but Bilbao create few chances, and our rhythm suffers when we make a series of substitutions, although Arthur Masuaku plays well, celebrating his new contract. Anderson has a fierce shot saved, and ex-Cheltenham Town player Yuri Berniche fires wide when he should have hit the target. Grady Diangana heads one narrowly over, and nearly connects with a miscued Angelo Ogbonna header from a corner, but it ends 2-2.

Many in the 38,000-strong crowd get up to leave, only to return when they hear there's going to be a penalty shootout, the first I can recall in this ground. The drama hardly matches the famous defeat of Everton, with Adrian throwing off his gloves to score the winner, before a knee slide into the corner. 

PENALTY WOE

Chicharito, famously deadly from inside the penalty box, can't score from 12 yards, sidefooting tamely at the keeper. Robert Snodgrass and Andriy Yarmolenko are confident enough and, despite a cheeky Bilbao Panenka, we're still in it when they hit the post. But Diangana blasts a woeful effort miles over, and we've lost our own cup on our own ground.

There are reasons to be cheerful, as our attacking options are improved by the impressive Fornals, and Haller does enough to show he can replace that bloke who went to China. But the defence looks no better, and with Mark Noble likely to be out, Rice will have a difficult job against City, as none of the other five midfielders/forwards can tackle.

Still miracles can happen - there's already been one this season, as the ref, Michael Oliver, had a decent game. 

Super Slav on the box

And in a second one, we found a seat at the boat bar on the water, where they provide Doom Bar and a Britpop soundtrack. They it's off to meet Gavin and Ilona at the Refreshment Rooms, where they're showing a triumphant Slaven Bilic who won his first West Brom game at Nottingham Forest.

This should be an exciting season, with West Ham scoring plenty of goals, but also likely to concede a fair few. We could possibly challenge for Europe if we can keep the injury list down. But there's a nailed-on defeat heading our way on Saturday.

Klopp kops Adrian

Slightly sad to see Adrian join Liverpool, but I'd like to wish him the best of luck at Anfield. Liverpool will be getting a quality understudy for Alisson — and if the number one ever gets injured Adrian could easily come in and do well. He's also the sort of big character the Kop should love, particularly if he takes a penalty. Have a San Miguel on us, Mr Adrian.

West Ham predictions in the Observer

My pre-season round-up can be found in today's Observer. Foolishly I've predicted West Ham will finish eighth — which means we'll almost certainly be in a relegation scrap! Click on the link to read the full piece.

Oxford bagged

So Reece Oxford has finally departed for Augsburg in the Bundesliga. It would be fascinating to know what has happened behind the scenes with a player who was seen as a future West Ham captain. It was just four seasons ago Oxford was making his debut at the Emirates as a 16-year-old and starring in the Hammers' win. Perhaps the next game was more prescient though, when he failed to track his man and was subbed in the home defeat against Leicester. 

Something went badly wrong and eventually Bilic, Moyes and Pellegrini all declined to give Oxford a chance, even when West Ham were struggling defensively. He was loaned to Reading and Borussia Monchengladbach without making a great impression. Did all that initial success make him complacent? The professionalism of the Bundesliga should be good for Reece, though it will be interesting to see if he ever fulfils his potential.