Critics don’t have a clue about me, says Arnautovic

MARKO ARNAUTOVIC is on track to become the Premier League’s greatest enigma with the Austrian dismissing claims he has found his form after a difficult start at West Ham. Arnautovic has five goals in six Premier League games and supplied the cross for Andy Carroll’s stoppage-time winner against West Bromwich on Tuesday. It suggests a vast improvement on his first 13 games for West Ham — no goals and one red card — after a club-record £27million transfer from Stoke. But Arnautovic said: ‘People who say I am up and down don’t know anything. ‘They expect me to score and assist every time I play, but sometimes I score and I go home and think I didn’t play very well, but because I scored they’ll say, “Wow, he was amazing”. ‘These people don’t know what tactics the coach has given you, tracking your runner. If you score or assist you are the best player in the world, but if you lose you are the worst on the planet.’ Carroll scored his first two goals of the season as West Ham beat West Brom and he hopes to keep his place against Tottenham tonight. ‘It’s been very frustrating,’ said Carroll. ‘It’s hard when you’re coming on for the last 20 minutes. I don’t want to be an impact player coming off the bench. ‘I felt like I needed to show what I was about and try to get back in the starting XI, and scoring the two goals and getting the win for the lads was great.’ West Ham came back from 2-0 down to beat Spurs in the Carabao Cup in October and the tie haunts Mauricio Pochettino. ‘I would sign now to reach half-time at 2-0,’ said Pochettino. ‘Then we need to be clever and play like 0-0.’ Spurs will be without Danny Rose, who has suffered another knee injury, but hope Harry Kane is over a heavy cold.