Manuel Pellegrini Confirms Marko Arnautovic Will Return to Face Man Utd on Saturday
West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed that forward Marko Arnautovic will return to the lineup to face Manchester United on Saturday after recovering from a knee injury.
The Austrian has been unavailable for the last week, missing his side's clashes with Chelsea and Macclesfield Town. However, he is now set to return to spearhead his team's attack against Jose Mourinho's men this weekend.
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The club posted a transcript of Pellegrini's pre-match press conference on their official website, quoting the Chilean as saying: “Marko worked with the squad for the last three days of the week so I think he is 100 per cent fit for tomorrow."
Pellegrini also praised 20-year-old Grady Diangana, who netted twice on his debut for the side in the 8-0 victory over Macclesfield. He insisted that he would be prepared to give the youngster another chance in the team, saying: “I don’t think Grady’s age is a problem. I think that when players have the opportunity then they must take that chance.
"I always try to analyse performance so we will see if we have space for him in the game tomorrow.”
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West Ham have shown serious improvement in their performances in recent weeks and, should they manage to prevent Manchester United from scoring this weekend, would keep their third consecutive clean sheet for the first time since December 2017.
New signings Fabian Balbuena and Issa Diop look to be developing an impressive partnership in the league, whilst Angelo Ogbonna also looked fantastic against Macclesfield. Pellegrini was happy to praise his defenders, saying: “I’m very happy [with our defending], but not only for Diop and Balbuena because having a good performance.
"I was very happy also with Angelo Ogbonna on Wednesday in the Cup.
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“Maybe [Macclesfield] is not the same level of rival but you must show more attention when the opponent arrives in your box and Angelo won all his duels with their players.“I think that we are improving in defending and that’s true for all our defenders.”
The Hammers currently sit 17th in the Premier League table, but could move as high as 11th with a victory on Saturday.
