West Ham United lost 1-0 at Manchester City on Wednesday night.
West Ham United boss Manuel Pellegrini has told Football.London that striker Marko Arnautovic missed out against Manchester City due to a fever.
The Hammers travelled up to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night to take on Pep Guardiola’s champions, with Pellegrini facing his former employers.
West Ham proved to be a stubborn opponent, but City did claim the win with a solitary goal as Sergio Aguero scored from the penalty spot, converting after Bernardo Silva had been fouled.
Pellegrini’s side couldn’t recover, slipping to a 1-0 defeat, but they certainly gave a great account of themselves against difficult opposition.
Pellegrini may have wished for different attacking options though, as target man Andy Carroll started the game despite Pellegrini wanting more pace up top.
He chose to leave Javier Hernandez on the bench, but he wanted to start Marko Arnautovic in order utilise him, Michail Antonio and Felipe Anderson as a pacy attacking trident on the counter-attack.
However, Arnautovic wasn’t even in the squad, and Pellegrini has revealed that it’s because the Austrian woke up with a fever on Wednesday, with the Hammers boss cursing the bad luck.
“We were very unlucky that Marko Arnautovic woke up ill with a fever because we wanted to have a good recovery in our box, have three fast players up front with Antonio and Anderson to make good counter attacks,” he added.
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