MARKO OF A GENIUS!
Swaggering Arnautovic is saving Hammers’ season
Anybody who feared there would be crowd trouble here on Saturday need not have worried. Everybody inside the London Stadium was too spellbound by Marko Arnautovic’s swashbuckling performance to think of anything else.
As a result the atmosphere was unrecognisable from the defeat by burnley three weeks ago. Gone was the discontent for the directors, replaced by a unified crowd simply desperate for their team to perform and get a result — and boy, did West Ham, and one player in particular, deliver.
Arnautovic bullied the away side from the off. His two firsthalf goals were brilliantly taken and justified the swaggering arrogance he exuded throughout the game.
david Moyes heaped such praise on him. He knew that his unstoppable Austrian had possibly just turned West Ham’s season around, while also landing another blow on his former manager, Mark Hughes.
Moyes said: ‘Marko is outstanding. Sometimes these games change clubs, but it isn’t just the Marko Arnautovic show!’
Joao Mario opened the scoring after 13 minutes, smashing the ball home from the edge of the area after some great work by Cheikhou Kouyate. Just four minutes later Arnautovic had his first — finishing off Mario’s cross. His second, just before half-time, was a superb finish after a raking ball from Arthur Masuaku. The win lifted West Ham to 14th, five points clear of the drop zone.
At times in the first half it felt as if the Hammers were going to score every time they went forward. They have seemed to be all or nothing this season. Their fortunes have swung wildly from three successive defeats by a three-goal margin to this threegoal victory of their own.
no wonder Moyes said he was frustrated by the inconsistency and that he and his team needed to work on it.
He said: ‘Unfortunately we’re either very good or not good at all. I need to bring a bit of consistency to the team. When our performances drop I need to make sure it doesn’t drop to the levels it has done before.’
but this was brilliant, a performance that made a mockery of their lowly position in the table — even though the opposition were awful.
West Ham played football seldom seen since their final season at Upton Park.
Southampton have won just one of their past 18 league games, and the only saving grace from an otherwise miserable season is that they have an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley to play in three weeks. but Hughes knows they are in trouble. ‘We conceded three very easy goals and made some catastrophic errors. We didn’t give West Ham a game,’ he said. ‘Surviving isn’t going to be easy. It was always going to be a test. We are in a difficult situation.’ WEST HAM (4-4-1-1): Hart 7; Zabaleta 7, Rice 8, Ogbonna 7, Cresswell 7; Antonio (Fernandes 9min, 7), Noble 7.5, Kouyate 8 (Cullen 89), Masuaku 7; Mario 8; ARNAUTOVIC 9 (Hugill 80). Subs not used: Adrian, Evra, Pask, Diangana. Scorers: Mario 13, Arnautovic 17, 45+4. Booked: None. Manager: David Moyes 7.5 SOUTHAMPTON (4-4-2): McCarthy 5; Soares 5, Stephens 5, Hoedt 5, Bertrand 6; Tadic 5, Lemina 5, Hojberg 5, Redmond 5.5 (Boufal 67, 5); Austin 5.5 (Carrillo 83) Gabbiadini 4 (Long 46, 5). Subs not used: Forster, Yoshida, Romeu, Ward-Prowse. Booked: Lemina, Stephens, Tadic. Manager: Mark Hughes 5. Referee: Jonathan Moss 6. Attendance: 56,882.