NAUTY ’N’ NICE
Marko and Pea raise Irons survival hopes
HE is unpredictable, he’s immensely gifted – and he’s frustratingly inconsistent.
But there is no doubt that in Marko Arnautovic, West Ham have a match-winner who could be crucial in their battle to stay in the Premier League.
Never has the scrap for survival been so intense. A mid-table position now is no guarantee against appearing in the Championship fixture list next season.
And that is where Arnautovic could be key. Certainly Watford had no answer to him.
He has been absent for three matches with a hamstring injury and they were left cursing that his enforced break had not been extended.
He teased and tormented the away side at the London Stadium. His performance would have come as no surprise to Sebastian Prodl, his Austrian compatriot in the Hornets defence, but familiarity was no ally.
Mind you, he might have struggled to recognise Arnautovic at first. He has had his hair dyed blond – a look that even surprised manager David Moyes.
“When he came in with it to training, I didn’t know what to say,” said Moyes.
“So I just said, ‘That looks great.’ Mind you he did keep a hat on at training.” Clearly, flattery gets you everywhere, because the positive body language of Arnautovic, in the three days’ preparation he had, convinced Moyes to start with him. It paid off.
Moyes said: “I don’t think it was a risk. He was giving us the right vibes.”
But if Arnautovic was expecting praise after his man-of-the-match performance he was disappointed.
“More to come,” was the assessment of Moyes. “We are not letting him off the hook. He is getting pushed all the way by us. He should have scored more. But he was a problem to Watford. He is difficult to play against. He has power and he has pace.”
Another to excel was Michail Antonio in a left wing-back role. He laid on the first goal for Javier Hernandez after a foraging run and a precise cross that was headed in by the Little Pea.
“We want to see more from him,” stressed Moyes. No one is able to feel smug at West Ham. And Watford felt the opener shouldn’t even have stood.
Marvin Zeegelaar ended up on the deck as he and Hernandez watched Antonio’s 38th-minute cross come into the area, but the 6ft4in Dutchman should be embarrassed to lose a physical battle to the little striker.
The second goal came from Arnautovic in the 78th minute, a close-range effort after Aaron Cresswell’s cross was blocked by Orestis Karnezis.
Watford were a shadow of the team that dismantled Chelsea six days ago, but boss Javi Gracia refused to make an issue of the alleged foul on Zeegelaar.
He said: “I would need to see it again but I don’t want to complain about anything. They dominated the first half. We did better in the second and we tried three different systems. We did not have any clear-cut chances though.”