Arnautovic not an elbow, an assault

In Saturday’s match against Southampton, Marko Arnautovic looked over at Jack Stephens, who had the ball, and then ran over at him in a rage, his elbow already drawn high as he approached, and then blindsided Stephens with a brutal elbow to the face and neck. This was not a football play. This was not a shoulder to shoulder challenge. This was not a tackle or an aerial duel. There was no sporting justification for his actions. Arnautovic simply assaulted a man.

If he had done this at a bar after a few drinks he would have been arrested and probably jailed. But because this happened on the field of sport, he will probably just get a three match ban, and will be back doing this sort of thing in a month.

Arnautovic has prior in this regard as well. During a match against Arsenal, Arnautovic shoved Mathieu Debuchy while the Arsenal man was still in the air, sending him careening into the advertising hoardings and dislocating his shoulder.  Debuchy wasn’t even on the pitch when Arnautovic attacked him. No foul was called. Debuchy missed 14 games that season from that injury.

Perhaps because of his own aggressive nature, Arnautovic wears a target on his back. Two Arsenal defenders have clobbered him with hard fouls after that Debuchy incident: Gabriel and Holding. Holding even knocked him out of the game for a few weeks. And in the match against Southampton on Saturday, Marko was elbowed in the head just a few minutes before he retaliated.

Football is meant to be a contact sport but it’s not supposed to be a sport where one player hunts down another and blind-side elbows him in the head. When Marko Arnautovic is on the pitch he transforms the game from football to pugilism. Even former referee Keith Hackett is calling for a 5 match ban. So if the Football Association wants to keep football as football they need to punish players like Marko Arnautovic harshly.

Qq

21 comments

  1. I disagree to an extent; football isn’t a contact sport, it’s a ball game. Arnautovic deserves everything he gets and more, he’s a nasty piece of work and his look of disbelief as he got the red card is indication of his arrogance.

  2. He didn’t even try to hide his intentions. This isn’t just reckless play, it’s violent conduct with the intent to hurt a fellow professional. Not only is a 5 match ban fair, it should be the minimum.

  3. What a biased post what about whilshire and what he done to a youth player? ridiculous arsenal fans never fail to amuse me that they dig at others when there own club is a laughing stock

    1. wilshere doesn’t have a target on his back for being a world class douche bag. second, wilshere barely pushed a kid who threw himself to the ground and grabbed his face. this is not biased.

      1. He tried to head but a youth player, the one after he pushed also offering him to come down the tunnel yeah… ananatovic wasn’t even that bad his elbow was high yeah the way the guys head moved into him when he passed made it look worse but how can you say whilshire isn’t a douche bag? he’s got short man syndrome he’s always piping up and squaring up to people thats when he’s fit anyway

        1. Yes I’m sure it was short man syndrome and not the fact that he has just recently recovered from a broken leg after a similarly poor challenge that set him off.

        2. Do you Stoke knuckle draggers have a hard on for anyone that ever breathed the fetid air of the potteries?
          Just a few of the factual errors in your diatribe
          It was a U23 game, Jack was an overage player as allowed by the rules and is only 25. I have no idea how old the city thugs are but are likely a few years apart you make it sound like he hit a 15 yr old.
          Watch the coverage the first shit takes him down late in just the sort of tackle that has broken his leg before. This is a tackle reckless with regard to the safety of an opponent with no chance of getting the ball that is recommended to be a red card. he squares up to him and shoves him in the chest. Now this is stupid but it could be argued that it wasn’t much of a push and the big hard northern bloke dived like some cheating diving foreigner! But hands were below shoulder height however a red is right for the situation. Then the other jackass arrives from 50 yds away grabs Jack and tries to kick him. Of course Jack reacts violently who wouldn’t in the situation but there was as much from both. This second jackass needs a long ban for escalating the brawl. But I suppose you’d call that standing up for a mate despite the fact that he blindsided jack who had taken his man on squared up in front.

  4. arnautovic has a reputation that precedes him. it’s a damn shame because he’s a very talented footballer. he needed parents to square him away or just needed to get punched in the face when he was a kid. this is how assholes are developed. they don’t become that way when they become adults, it starts in their childhood with parents who tolerate their nonsense.

    1. As a youth coach for over 25 years I can say with some authority that if a kid is an a**hole it’s generally a personality trait that is directly passed down from one or both parents. No doubt one or both of Arnautovic’s parents were complete a-holes.

  5. Yes it was a red card but does he really deserve a 5 match ban, no he doesn’t! There’s been worse out there before now and nothing gets said. Why didn’t lamina get punishment for his elbow……

    1. Making excuses for players like this because ‘someone else did something worse and got away with it’ is one of the worst things fans of any team can do if you want fair play. It’s just another version of ‘It all evens out in the end’ and makes it easier for those supposed to be in charge to ignore the incidents as fans fight amongst themselves.

      All these incidents/players should be called out and condemned no matter who they play for.

  6. Not that I care what happens to Arnautovic who’s as thick as they come, but the whole situation probably could’ve been avoided if Lee Mason was a proper referee and not a chicken sh$t moonlighting as one.

    After Arnautovic was elbowed earlier in the game the West Ham players surrounded Mason lobbying for a stiff punishment for the offending player and Mason basically just ignored them.

    Had he had the chops and some real self esteem he would’ve told them he didn’t have a good angle on the play(he didn’t ) and that’s what he would put in his report, which would allow the league to punish the player in question.
    Instead, he just ran from the west ham players like a little girl that he is.

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