Arnautovic and Carroll pairing shouldn’t see the light of day again

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West Ham United boss Manuel Pellegrini opted to start Marko Arnautovic and Andy Carroll in a strike partnership against Brighton on Wednesday.

The Hammers went 2-0 down in the game thanks to goals from Dale Stephens and Shane Duffy.

But the returning Marko Arnautovic struck twice in two second half minutes to salvage a draw, but Pellegrini was unhappy after the game.

The Chilean felt ‘absolutely frustrated’ with the way his team conceded from set pieces, and that they were unable to create in the first half.

It was a poor collective showing in the first half, but perhaps that was down to the way the manager set his team up.

A failed experiment

Playing Arnautovic and Carroll together simply didn’t work for the ex-Manchester City boss.

Perhaps he felt it could have worked having played the burly Edin Dzeko and Alvaro Negredo together at his former club on occasion.

The pair just seemed to lack any kind of understanding of one another’s games, and the link up play was non-existent.

Carroll was substituted at halftime (supposedly due to a lack of fitness) and replaced by Lucas Perez who didn’t fare much better – but what it did do was allow Arnautovic to come good.

He appears to flourish more as a lone striker, with technical players in and around him.

Perhaps Carroll will have to make do with replacing the Austrian directly in the second half of games.