By CandH’s Allen Cummings
Most of us feared the worst when we saw Marko Arnautovic hobble off before half time on Tuesday evening. Now our fears have been confirmed. He’s sustained a hamstring injury and is likely to be out for several weeks. But is it really a disaster!?
Okay. Arnautovic has become a real crowd pleaser and talisman for the team this season. We love him, his attitude, his explosive pace and of course his goals. He’s the team’s joint top scorer with five goals alongside Felipe Anderson – but while Anderson has been on fire adding three goals in his last four games, Arnie has been smouldering and hasn’t hit the back of the net since the beginning of November against Burnley.
He’s drawn a blank in his last four games, and by his standards he’s missed a few clear cut chances in those games – chances he would surely have gobbled up earlier in the season.
In my opinion his frustration has begun to show at times recently. I certainly don’t feel he’s been his usual, clinical self. We saw a consequence of the frustration against Cardiff. Arnie failed to finish a couple of chances early in the first half, and his frustration at that possibly resulted in him giving away a needless penalty.
An error that could have been costly, had Lukasz Fabianski not produced an excellent save to get his team mate out of the dog house. Arnie’s anger at the referee’s decision continued to fester, eventually resulting in a yellow card. Shortly after of course he limped off – his game done.
Arnautovic has been carrying a knee problem for some time now. He’s found himself subject to a lot of disruptive transfer speculation – courtesy of some ill-advised comments from his brother. And the goals he thrives on have dried up.
This enforced layoff, while not ideal , could have come at possibly an opportune moment, if that’s possible. A break from the pressure of games, goals and expectations might just be what the doctor ordered. We could see and reap the benefits of a rested and rejuvenated Arnie when he makes his return.
I can’t see Arnie feigning injury to get himself conveniently out of the team in time for a January move to Man U, as the conspiracy theorists would have it. Perfect timing really though in that Arnies Injury has occurred at a time when we have two confidence boosted strikers in Chicha and Perez combined with the return of the big AC. And if they all fail to score then there’s Anderson and Antonio. We have goals in our squad now. We don’t have to rely on an Andy Carroll or an Arnie Arnoutavic to save our season singlehandedly. the injury of a player like Arnie would have spelt disaster going into the busy Christmas period. Where are the goals going to come from we would have wondered, but not now. We’ve got players queuing up for a sniff of the action.
Agree with a lot of what you say, this injury could be good news, Arnie has missed a series of absolute sitters when he has been one on one, the dynamic pace and hunger are still there but it seems obvious there is also a lot of frustration, whether at missing teh chances or because he isn’t getting the move he wants.
What a difference a year makes. Despite one of our best players being injured during a crucial time, we can still see a positive in the situation. Oh I also agree, he has been off the boil recently so a break from the firs tteam could be a blessing in disguise. Also allows us to have a proper look at Perez etc and see what he is really made of.