David Moyes has unleashed Marko Arnautovic

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After a rough start for West Ham under Slaven Bilic, Marko Arnautovic has been spectacular for David Moyes of late.

David Moyes was appointed West Ham boss on November 7th with the Irons in the relegation zone and £24m summer signing Marko Arnautovic in wretched form.

The Austrian hadn’t scored a single goal in his 7 appearances thus far, and in fact had only managed to have 5 shots on goal in his 369 minutes. A shockingly poor record.

Arnautovic was so poor that Moyes hauled him off in all three of his opening matches at the club despite West Ham needing a goalscorer in all three of those games.

Arnautovic was dropped altogether for the match against Manchester City, though he did come off the bench at the end but was unable to prevent West Ham falling to a late defeat.

But something was changing in the Austrian. In the middle of December, Moyes had publicly chided his tall forward, saying to The Guardian: “I’ve told him this morning, the first time I’ve really had some time with him, and I said: ‘You’ll play in the team if you make goals and score goals, but if you don’t run for the team then you don’t play either.’”

That’s a fairly powerful statement, especially when coupled with being dropped for City. And in the next game, against Champions Chelsea, Arnautovic was superb in West Ham’s shock 1-0 win, scoring the only goal with a stunningly fleet-footed finish.

Nobody could quite believe it, but certainly it was not expected to continue. And sure enough he didn’t score in the next game against Arsenal, well, not one that was allowed anyway.

Arnautovic nodded West Ham into the lead early in the match only for the goal to be ruled out for offside. But besides that, he played brilliantly – constantly threatening the Gunners defence.

Then West Ham went to Stoke and Arnautovic was once again in fine form, scoring his second goal in three matches and playing superbly well at the tip of West Ham’s spear.

Before David Moyes, Marko Arnautovic had played 7 games for West Ham totalling 369 minutes. He scored 0 goals from 5 shots as well as attempting 5 dribbles, completing just 1.

Since David Moyes, Marko Arnautovic has played 7 games for West Ham totalling 464 minutes. He scored 2 goals from 19 shots as well as attempting 18 dribbles, completing 12.

David Moyes has well and truly unleashed Marko Arnautovic, and the Austrian’s goals have lifted West Ham out of the relegation zone and could well fire them to Premier League safety.