We need to be patient with our young players – Fulham boss Alvaro Arbeloa

Alvaro Arbeloa called for patience for his young Fulham players after they beat West Ham 3-2 at the London Stadium to reach the Carabao Cup fourth round.

It took a lovely solo finish from substitute Oscar Bobb to win the tie 12 minutes from the end after Arbeloa had sent on youngsters Shea Charles, Gonzalo Garcia and Manuel Angel, all of whom joined the club in the summer.

It was a more senior player that gave Fulham an early lead in east London, Rodrigo Muniz heading in before West Ham levelled through Morato.

Summer signing from Real Madrid, Cesar Palacios, himself only 21, then restored the lead, but the home side equalised again late in the half through Pablo.

Bobb’s brilliant strike won it, but Arbeloa was encouraged by the introduction of his young stars.

“We have so many young players with talent and we need to be patient with them,” he said. “We need to help them, develop them, but you can see the talent they have, the quality. They understand the game and they will grow during the season.”

Arbeloa is still awaiting his first Premier League win since taking charge but this was an impressive battling display against a strong West Ham side that retained much of their top-flight quality from last season.

“West Ham has very good players, and when they made their substitutions it was a Premier League team,” said Arbeloa, after the hosts sent on Jarrod Bowen, Taty Castellanos and Manor Solomon in the second half. “They were pushing in the last 10 minutes.

“So happy with the performance of my players and with the job that they did. We prepared well, we did a very good first half.

“I was a little bit upset at half-time. I’m still asking how we can concede these two goals. So easy, for me. We need to improve there. It’s not easy for us to score goals, we need to do so many things well.

“We need to be a little bit more aggressive when we are defending. But everything that we worked on in the last two days, we did on the pitch.”

After a first-half goal-fest, a cagey second period followed before Bobb’s brilliance tipped the balance.

The Norwegian was summoned from the bench with his side chasing the winning goal, and it took him less than 10 minutes to deliver, a lovely jinking run through the home side’s defence before finishing inside the near post.

“It was a tough test for us, we know it would be a tough opponent,” said Nuno Espirito Santo, whose Championship leaders now turn their attention to Saturday’s derby away to rivals Millwall. “Overall we did a reasonable performance, some mistakes.

“There’s not much time now for sorrow, so let’s focus on Saturday.”