Manuel Pellegrini felt that both Jack Wilshere and Carlos Sanchez were the key figures in West Ham’s 2-0 win away at Newport County in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.

Wilshere opened the scoring for the Hammers after a mistake in the Newport defence, and while the League Two side had held their own until that point, it proved to be the swing in the game.

Wilshere and Sanchez went on to control proceedings in the second half, and the boss expressed his delight at the performances of the pair.

He told the club website: “Jack, I think played very well, scoring a goal and dominating the midfield area. This is what we expect from him because he is an experienced player and he knows how to do it and, on a good day, he makes it very difficult for the other team to recover the ball.

“Also, with Carlos Sanchez, I think that he also played a very good game, and Felipe Anderson was also a positive for us.”

It proved to be a routine evening for the Hammers in South Wales, despite Newport’s giant-killing status in recent years, and Pellegrini was happy that his side overcame the challenges presented to them.

He said: “I am happy because we got a good result, we qualified for the next round, we didn’t concede any goals and we scored two goals. The first 45 minutes, I think we had some problems in defending because we played against a new style with so many crosses and second balls. But in the second half, we improved a lot with the ball.

The only dampener on the night was the serious-looking hamstring injury suffered by Michail Antonio early on, but Pellegrini is confident he won’t be on the sidelines for too long.

He said: “It was a hamstring injury and we see how big it is tomorrow, but probably he will not be available for a couple of weeks. We have the international break after the game on Saturday so after 15 days we will see.”