Tottenham have somehow been praised for the low attendance in their Carabao Cup against West Ham, after Arsenal received so much flak for their poor showing in the same competition last month.

If you happened to watch the Spurs/West Ham game on Wednesday night, you have would have noticed a very empty Wembley stadium. Only 36,000, a good percentage of which were West Ham fans, turned up to watch the game.

While that figure is bigger than White Hart Lane’s old capacity, it’s far below the 80,000 that turned out to watch Spurs’ 4-1 win over Liverpool on Sunday.

It’s also smaller than the attendance at Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Doncaster in the Carabao Cup third round. Despite that, the Guardian’s match report has deemed 36,000 “pretty sensational going” and an “impressive effort in the circumstances”.

Contrast that with the wide-spread attention Arsenal received for only drawing 44,000 to the game against Doncaster, and you can see a problem.

For a London derby, 36,000 at Wembley falls far below what you’d expect. With ticket prices reduced, you’d think fans would be flocking the ground to see an exciting young team play.

It’s rather telling that more fans turned out to watch Arsenal’s fringe players and youngsters play lower league opposition in mid-week.

If 36,000 is “sensational” for Spurs, they may want to reconsider moving into that new 60,000 seater stadium.