Marko Arnautovic will have has hand scanned following what looked like an agonising injury against Watford at Vicarage Road but and looks certain to miss the clash against Leicester City on Friday night.
The early indication was that Arnautovic had suffered a broken thumb, which could keep him on the sidelines for several weeks.
The club’s record signing had enjoyed what was probably his best game for the club until the injury – responding well to manager David Moyes’ call to show himself as a team player.
However, the Irons should have Michail Antonio back for the game following a rib injury and hopefully Andre Ayew who had to cry off from yesterday’s (Sun) game through illness.
However , Javier Hernandez remains a major doubt with a hamstring injury although James Collins is expected to be ready for a return.
So a little bit of light then.
Need it! Play 2 up front
Bit of light fishes ? More like a search light is needed ! Ayew in for who , Carroll , Arnie , lanzini ?Antonio in for who Carroll , Arnie ? Collins in for Reid , ogbonna ? Unfortunately it will make no difference ! We lack pace and creativity in the squad , add to that some shouldn’t even be on the park and that’s down to a depleted squad to accommodate the new signings and wages ?
Personally unless we bring in players in Jan then this team is self evident in its plight to stay in the prem in a very ugly way ! Its not looking good is it mate ! It didn’t perform on Sunday because it couldn’t ! Its as simple as that !! 😉
I would say we need a bit of patience. Is the squad thin ? Yes. Do we have the players to rise ? Yes. This squad needs to continue on the path to improvement shown yesterday, with a couple of immediate adjustments (Adrian for Hart, Carroll on the bench), because I saw more effort than at the end of Slav’s time. Kouyate, Arnautovic and Ogbonna seemed to have recovered some fight. Yes the silly mistakes still happened, but you don’t change tics acquired in 18 months in two days. Let’s not be over pessimistic please.
Forget the effort Dunlop ! 3-4 showed up and that’s great , but its not going to improve the pace and ability in some of the players , we are diabolical defensively ! Effort can’t compensate for ability ! So we lose 2-0 instead of 4-0 ! Moyes dug the senior players out for the Watford defeat , not good enough he said , says it all for me , been saying it for ever it seems , its self evident . new blood or struggle defensively , and lanzini can’t do all the creative stuff on his own ! Were in trouble and if results don’t come in the next 2 games its going to be a crap Xmas 😕
I think you are being too negative Laz, that game was a small improvement it will take time to turn things around, players like Cresswell and Reid were excellent defensively under Allardyce so they can find more gears, Noble is a shadow of the player he was And Carroll can play much better, as for Cheikhou he looks like Carlton Palmer in disguise so he has a lot of improvement we are in a bad place but we need to take small steps and hopefully pick up some luck and results on the way. We just have to roll our sleeves up and graft Moyes will demand it and we will see who can hack it soon enough COYI!!!
I’m glad the scan revealed Arnie’s arm was still attached. The way he was carrying on I thought he might not have been so lucky
Am I missing the updates on Antonio / Ayew etc ?
It would be nice to have some updates on Antonio, Ayew and Collins as per the headline.
Unfortunately I’m with Laz here, we have no confidence, limited pace, cannot defend, no creativity and the squad we have isn’t good enough to turn things around. Short of a significant clear out in January, and reinforcements who can run quicker than my old num, and for a tad longer than her too, then we are looking like relegation fodder. how you saw an improvement against Watford is beyond me, we looked like bleeding Dads Army again. I was half expecting Carroll to get up after his latest assult wearing a crocked pair of Captain Mainwearing glasses!