Pellegrini showers praise on West Ham’s comeback hero Arnautovic
West Ham bounced back from their defeat against Burnley to claim a point with a 2-2 draw against Brighton at home on Wednesday.
Goals from Dale Stephens and Shane Duffy in the space of two minutes put the Hammers under pressure but Marko Arnautovic rose to the occasion to restore parity with a brace within 10 minutes.
Arnautovic’s brace put him back amongst the goals for the first time since November 3 as the Austrian continued his successful comeback from a hip injury. Manuel Pellegrini showered praises on his star forward for being instrumental in the team’s comeback from two goals down, saying that he was full of energy on his return from injury.
“He is a different player,” Pellegrini said of Arnautovic.
“He is coming back from injury so he is full of energy.
“We know that Brighton score most of their goals from set pieces, especially corners, so to concede two goals from there, knowing that Brighton are good at them, it is very disappointing.
“But fortunately we never gave up. We continued to fight, the two substitutes came into the game and did very well, changed the face [of the game] and I don’t remember Brighton having many chances apart from their two set-piece goals.
“Now I hope that we can qualify on Saturday against Birmingham City [in the FA Cup].”
