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West Ham United's Carabao, or Moose Cup as it is also known, quarter final away to Tottingham will be played on Wednesday the 22nd of December, kicking off at 7.45pm. Hammers have NEVER won the competition in any of it's guises, they have reached the final and lost, but that was when the final was replayed if it was a draw*.

Having acquired three straight victories in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League Cup so far, David Moyes knows a win or a draw would see his team sitting top of the group with two games still remaining to play. Hammers travel to Genk for their return leg of the fixture while actively pursuing success in the League and in the League Cup, in addition there is the FA Cup to come as well!

Hammers recent rise to the higher echelons of football's top table has been comprehensively covered and surprisingly endorsed by the media in general, however there are still many* who 'just don't understand' that Declan Rice IS a West Ham United player through and through.

Hammers 'destroyed' fellow claret & blue wearers Aston Villa on what was David Moyes' 999th games as a manager, although the final score line rather flatters the Irons, it was still a comprehensive clinical victory over what was ten men for the bulk of the 2nd half at Villa Park, we'll get to the 'ten men' later!

Villa: Martinez, Cash, Hause, Konsa, Targett, Nakamba, McGinn (c), J.Ramsey, Buendia, Bailey, Watkins Subs: Steer (GK), Mings, Tuanzebe, Young, El Ghazi, Chukwuemeka, Archer, Davis, A.Ramsey
West Ham: Fabiański, Johnson, Zouma, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice (c), Souček, Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals, Antonio Subs: Subs: Areola (GK), Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Lanzini, Masuaku, Noble, Vlašić, Yarmolenko

When asked to appraise his team's current form David Moyes said: “It makes me feel really good because I’ve always said I want to be the best and the hardest team to play against – when teams don’t enjoy playing me. When I was brought up at Celtic, it was always about winning, first and foremost. Then it was about winning with style, and then when you get a good style, they wanted lots of goals. So I feel like my whole background has been in that. “But when you don’t always have the best players and not always the best, maybe way of playing, then I have to find a way of winning.

David Moyes has transformed West Ham in just under two years, from relegated threatened battlers to a team with genuine top six aspirations and with an eye on the top four! Chasing success on FOUR different fronts requires a lot of careful man management, a feat that Moyes is coping with rather well at the moment.

It is Haloween after all, so why not consider scary nightmares? A recurring nightmare for West Ham's bean counters must be Sebastien Haller, even though it is NOT actually the accountants money, to be a good one they have to think of their client's money as their own. So the distinct possibility of Newcastle managing to tempt Ajax manager Erik Ten Hag to become their manager, could be a double edged sword with a bit of jeopardy thrown in for good measure!

Hammers have been drawn away against Tottingham for the quarter finals of the Carabou Cup, as was expected it was always going to be them or Liverpool! It is what it is, so bring it on. For the first time in a long long while fans looked to the match ups dreading 'top' opposition, currently IT IS West Ham that was the feared number to be drawn out of the pot!

Quarter-final draw in full
Tottingham v West Ham-Arsenal v Sunderland-Brentford v Chelsea-Liverpool v Leicester City. Games to be played on December the 20th STA.