BATMAN TO THE RESCUE

Collins hails Hammers superhero Arnautovic

MARKO ARNAUTOVIC has been such a superhero for West Ham this season he would not look out of place in a Batman outfit.

That’s the view of the Hammers forward’s team-mate James Collins, who watched Arnautovic return from a hamstring injury to save the day against Watford.

Austrian Arnautovic caused a stir with his new bleach-blond hairdo before joining Javier Hernandez on the scoresheet in a sensational performance as West Ham climbed away from danger.

And Collins joked: “I’m not sure it’s blond, it’s more like ginger or rose gold! But if he keeps performing like that he can come in a Batman outfit if he likes and I wouldn’t care.

Stick

“He energised the whole team. If we’re clearing balls and someone’s chasing it we can squeeze up the pitch and it gets the fans on their feet.

“I’ve been at West Ham a long time and I know West Ham fans as well as anyone. They like someone who’s going to work hard and we’re all trying to do that.

“He got a little bit of stick when he first came for maybe not trying but the last few months he’s been fantastic. He’s huge for our team.”

Arnautovic was making his comeback after four weeks out and now has seven goals and three assists for West Ham this season.

Collins added: “He’s a massive player for us – that’s why we paid £24m for him. He makes such a difference with his workrate and I don’t know if it’s been noticed but his touch for the goal, the quality he’s got, is huge for West Ham. “If he can stay in the team, stay how he is and stay fit we’ve got a massive chance of moving up the table.”

There has been movement off the pitch at the London Stadium too, where David Moyes revealed West Ham’s transfer revamp was his idea.

Moyes has always insisted he will wait until the end of the season before deciding whether to sign up long-term.

But the fact he has convinced chairman David Sullivan to take a back seat on transfers in future is a major nod to him staying on.

Sullivan has announced a big overhaul of the club’s recruitment strategy, promising to delegate more responsibility and never sign a player the manager hasn’t seen play.

Asked if that was his idea, Moyes, said: “Yes. I’ve not necessarily seen a process here. It’s going to come a little bit away from the chairman, the chairman is going to try to stand aside a bit from it.”

Sullivan has had overall responsibility for transfers for years but has been persuaded to change things after a disastrous window in which Moyes missed out on most of his targets.

Things got even worse when West Ham were forced to part company with head of recruitment Tony Henry over his comments about African players.

Moyes admitted he would love the time to build up West Ham like he did in his 11 years at Everton, but admitted: “I don’t know if I’d get the time to build up West Ham that I got at Everton.”

Watford boss Javi Gracia called his side “soft” and insisted they are still not safe from relegation.

He said: “I think after our last game against Chelsea we can find a way but we need to keep demanding. West Ham was better than us.

“Now we have two weeks to work, to rest, to prepare in the best way possible to face Everton. We need to work a lot.”