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The Hammers have kick-started the 2026/27 campaign with a victory as a brace from Taty Castellanos and Jarrod Bowen’s strike from range comfortably placed Nuno’s side into Round Two of the Carabao Cup. Yet despite the victory, it was still a nervy affair.

The first thirty minutes were carnage for West Ham, Portsmouth took the lead after persistently threatening the Hammers with a deflected strike from range. The travelling Portsmouth fans erupted and Hammer heads fell, but a feeling of relief dropped into the stadium after Taty converted from close range to make it 1-1.

West Ham: Hermansen, Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Scarles, Alvarez, Orford, Kante, Bowen (C), Taty, Pablo
Subs: Areola, Ward-Prowse, Diouf, Veltman, Earthy, Casey, Golambeckis, Mayers, Ajala

Portsmouth: Schmid, Poole, Shaughnessy, Bishop, Segecic, Le Roux, Shein, Swanson, Devlin, Adams, Brooke-Smith
Subs: Bielica, Knight, Matthews, Dia, Bailey, Swift, Kenny, Milovanovic, Waddingham

The Hammers were previously targeting Manor Solomon, but the deal with the Tottenham Forward has ground to a halt due to ‘financial difficulties’ - West Ham were happy to offer £5m for the forward but, in the end, couldn’t agree an additional fee with Spurs. Whilst all seems normal, the reality is that we were happy to pay more initially, but due to the backlash from a large portion of the fanbase, the club have opted against the deal from happening.