Premier League winners and losers: Water is wet, Arsenal lose at Stoke
By Ty Finch
Loser: Marko Arnautovic
Marko Arnautovic is a polarizing player and personality. He can pull off outrageous feats of skill on and has match-winning ability on his day. He also can cripple his teammates with lazy runs and ludicrous red cards. On Saturday, he was the latter player.
Arnautovic barely made an impact on the match until the 33rd minute, when he mindlessly elbowed Southampton defender Jack Stephens in the head for no real reason, then looked shocked that referee Lee Mason would dare to issue him a red. Arnautovic felt aggrieved from an earlier challenge, but he took his revenge out on a completely different player and forced his team to play with 10 men for the rest of the match. In fact, just five minutes after his card, Southampton scored to double their lead.
What makes this particular red card even worse is that West Ham leveled the match with two goals from Chicharito after being down to 10 men. It’s entirely reasonable to believe a full-strength squad could have taken down Southampton on the day.
Arnautovic had to apologize after the match for his stupidity. His actions have assisted in his club being dead last in the Premier League after two weeks.
West Ham broke their transfer record to bring in Arnautovic from Stoke. In his two appearances for the Hammers, he has no goals or assists and one brutal red card. It’s possible the Austrian will recover from this setback and justify the large price tag that West Ham paid for him. It’s not looking good right now though.