Chicharito is spoiling Marko Arnautovic’s West Ham return

Two strikers, one position. Manager Manuel Pellegrini seems determined to play one center-forward at a time and the odd man out right now is Marko Arnautovic. It’s only due to the good play of Chicharito, but when will Arnie get his chance?

West Ham have been in solid form throughout their last five games, winning two, drawing two, and losing once (to Manchester City) in a close game. The team has been performing as a unit and solidly coming together defensively, with every player seemingly pulling their weight.

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Offensively, Chicharito has been leading the line atop a front three that has put up seven goals in the last five matches. While contributing 1 goal and 1 assist in that time, Hernandez has formidably led the West Ham attack and has kept fit-throwing Marko Arnautovic on the bench.

The thought-to-be injury on Arnautovic after the disappointing Wolves match saw Hernandez get the start in the Liverpool match to follow out of necessity. Since then he’s kept Arnie as a late game sub and is showing good faith in his manager’s decision to recurringly appoint him the starting striker by doing his job well.

Against Newcastle, Chicharito played 70 minutes and was credited with an assist on the penalty he drew from a lazy tackle out of Lejuene. Noble converted it to double the Hammers early lead and the game was out of hand for the Magpies. Chicharito’s elusiveness and fox-in-the-box tenacity created that chance, yet again proving his worth as a starting player.

With an unpredictable Cardiff City match coming up West Ham have some serious attacking questions. The heart of the Cardiff City defense, Sol Bamba, has now out for the match and rest of the season with an achilles injury so a striker who brings physicality and pace, like Arnautovic, could shock the green Cardiff defenders.

On the other hand, a veteran player like Hernandez can lose defenders and get into the dangerous areas like no other. He’s also, as we saw last week, solid at drawing contact and pulling defenders into disadvantageous situations for them.

With Lanzini back and not looking to have missed a beat I wouldn’t put money on dual strikers, but Pellegrini does like his attacking football. For me, until Chicharito does something to lose his spot he’s a must play, regardless of how dominant we know Arnautovic can be.