Shane Clancy
Manual Pellegrini spoke about Marko Arnautovic’s knee injury when meeting the media for his pre-Chelsea press conference in London earlier today.
Arnautovic had to limp off after 64 minutes at Goodison Park, last weekend. The Austrian forward had played a vital part in West Ham’s win over Everton, creating the first goal for Andriy Yarmolenko, early in the game, before then bagging one for himself, just after the hour-mark.
“Marko finished with a problem behind his knee against Everton,” Pellegrini told West Ham’s official website.
“He’s having some treatment and we will see if he can be fit for Sunday.”
Early reports after the game at Everton, suggested that Arnautovic should be fine for this weekend but Pellegrini was keen to highlight the fact that the Austrian’s availability is not a given for Sunday’s game.
This would be a huge blow to West Ham, who just seemed to click into gear in that 3-1 win at Goodison. Pellegrini will need his team to take that form into the Chelsea match if they are to have any hope of ending the Blues flying start to the campaign.
Any injury to Arnautovic is sure to put a spanner in the works. The Austrian is often pivotal in anything The Hammers create going forward and he will be sorely missed if he can’t take to the field on Sunday.