Phil Thompson has claimed that Marko Arnautovic has picked up an injury after West Ham’s 4-0 defeat to Manchester City at the London Stadium on Saturday.
Arnautovic was forced off in stoppage time with an injury and Thompson has slammed the Hammers for not hooking the Austria international sooner because he was clearly in pain in the final stages of the game.
“He was relatively quiet and the worrying aspect of this is that I think he pulled the top of his thigh,” said Thompson after the game on Sky Sport’s Gillette Soccer Saturday.
“He’s tried to twist and pass the ball back and you could see straight away he had done something.
“Why didn’t they take him off? He was stood around, appealing to come off in the last five minutes and it was the only last minute of injury time he went off the pitch.
“They will miss him.”
Arnautovic has been key for West Ham this season, scoring five goals in 12 appearances across all competitions.
OPINION
West Ham were never going to get anything against Man City on Saturday. Pep Guardiola’s side is one of the best that the Premier League has ever seen and they have a knack of always putting the Hammers to the sword every time they play them. West Ham weren’t great and the result shouldn’t be brushed under the carpet but one of the worst things that happened in the game was Arnautovic’s injury. Why didn’t Manuel Pellegrini take him off instantly? He may have made all three of his substitutions beforehand but the game was already lost and risking your star player for the last few minutes was ridiculous. Hopefully, for West Ham’s sake, Arnautovic’s injury isn’t serious but it did look as though he was in a lot of pain. The former Stoke attacker has had rotten luck with injuries lately, as has West Ham as a whole, and they will definitely miss him if he is out for an extended period of time.