Enjoyed Marko Arnautovic's TV interview after the Watford win when he opined: "I want just to show the critical people, all the people who don’t think I’m good, that I’m good and I want to give everything for this club, that’s why I play football. I’m surprised some people don’t like me. I think I have a good heart, so they should like me!" At least Gary Lineker and Danny Murphy on Match of the Day assured Marko that they liked him.
There's a thin line between genius and madness in sport and in his excellent book What Sport Tells Us About Life, Ed Smith wrote a whole chapter on the subject, centring on Zinedine Zidane's insecurities. Arnie clearly plays better when he thinks the world is against him. Having gone to the Stoke away game it certainly seemed to me that some of the Stokies didn't like Arnie too much — simply because he'd left for West Ham, a club he said was bigger than Stoke, then gave a crossed Hammers salute on the pitch and celebrated ostentatiously in front of the Boothen End when he scored.
A healthy dose of alienation could keep Arnautovic scoring until the end of the season. Arnie, just because you're not paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not all out to get you…
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