Darren Randolph hails London Stadium atmosphere and West Ham squad depth

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The Hammers beat London rivals Chelsea in the EFL Cup in midweek.

West Ham United goalkeeper Darren Randolph has told the club’s official website that the raucous London Stadium atmosphere drove his side on to victory against Chelsea in the EFL Cup.

The Hammers pulled off an impressive 2-1 victory against the Blues in a hotly-contested clash on Wednesday night to set up a quarter-final meeting with Manchester United.

The victory was symbolic of the Irons’ improvement in recent weeks after a torrid start to life in their new stadium.

The result has been somewhat overshadowed by accounts of the crowd trouble on the night, as the two sets of supporters exchanged blows in what it just the latest instance of violence breaking out in the stadium.

However, Randolph has chosen to focus on the majority of fans who roared their team on, and suggested that the level of noise created by Hammers supporters contributed to the win.

The ‘keeper told the club’s website: “The atmosphere was ridiculously loud and then we scored the second goal and it’s what you want to experience every week. It’s not a cup game against Chelsea every week but if the atmosphere is like that every time, it’s a horrible place for the other teams to come to.”

Randolph was one of just two changes made by Slaven Bilic to his starting XI for the game, and once again proved to be a solid and dependable deputy to first-choice stopper Adrian.

The Republic of Ireland international believes strength in depth is one of West Ham’s key advantages and says that the victory over Chelsea displayed that perfectly despite the lack of alterations.

He continued: “It makes things easy to come in and play when we’re playing with confidence. It would be harder to come in with everyone’s confidence on the floor.

“We’ve had a couple of good results and performances and confidence is high. It’s easy to slot in and then you have to do your job when you do. We’ve got people who are ready to come into the team and do a job and it’s great when you have that.”