West Ham United captain Pablo Zabaleta has admitted that off-field dramas have caused problems for his side and blamed the Marko Arnautovic transfer saga for their recent poor form, the Daily Mail reports.
Arnautovic had been the subject of intense interest from China this January, with West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini opting to leave the striker out of two of his side’s games this month.
Following a rampant 3-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on Tuesday night, the Hammers have now lost their last three games in succession.
Arnautovic returned to the starting line-up for the Wolves clash but failed to make any impact on his team’s overall performance.
Before the January transfer window opened West Ham had won five of their seven Premier League matches in the month of December, and club captain Zabaleta has now admitted that Arnautovic’s off-field saga has been one of the factors disrupting the team’s performance.
Zabaleta said:
Honestly, I think so many situations off the field have been creating a little bit of a bad atmosphere.
In December when we had a good run of games, it was like you could see West Ham playing as a team. Everyone working so hard for each other.
In January, it’s been tough. The only good thing was the win against Arsenal. But sometimes when you play against the big teams, it seems like everyone’s on it.
The reality is that if you want to be in a better position in the Premier League, then you can’t go from beating Arsenal to losing three games against two mid-table teams and a smaller team in the FA Cup. We need to think about the situation, the only way to improve is by working hard every day.
I can’t wait for February 1, and everyone is back on it again. We need commitment again from everyone if we want to have a good season and make West Ham a better club.
I understand January is a difficult month for clubs, because you can have big interest in your best players. But Arnie was out of the squad for two games, he’s been the main player for us.
If you want to have a good season, everyone needs to try and push the same way – as a team.
When you see so much speculation, players moving on, or some coming in, that can distract a little bit with the atmosphere in the dressing room. It’s hard for the manager as well. He also has to respect all the players.
I’m not saying it’s all about Arnautovic, it’s not only his situation. There have been many players, names around the media.
If we want to become the team we were in December, then we need to bring everyone together and play hard for each other.
Arnautovic limped off the field with just 13 minutes remaining after a kick to his foot from Ruben Neves.
The striker was seen leaving the stadium wearing a protective boot and is set to undergo a scan on Wednesday to discover the severity of his injury.
