West Ham feels like home for Arnautovic following stern talking to

Marko Arnautovic has revealed he had force himself to work even harder after a poor start to life at West Ham.

The forward, who moved to east London from Stoke in a club-record deal over the summer, struggled to get up and running under Slaven Bilic.

However, since the Croatian’s departure and the arrival of David Moyes, Arnautovic has been a key man for the Hammers, scoring seven and assisting three under the Scot.

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While his upturn in form has mainly been attributed to Moyes’ hard work mantra, the 28-year-old admitted he spoke with those close to him and had to give himself somewhat of a talking to in order to spark change.

“When I came to Stoke, it took me six months to settle in, and the same happened here,” the Austria international told the club website.

“I didn’t want this to happen, as I wanted to make an impact immediately at West Ham, but everything was going around and I was obviously in the spotlight because I came for a lot of money and didn’t perform how I wanted to or how the fans were expecting of me.

“Now, I feel fit and had a lot of talks with my family and got into myself and said ‘Let’s go Marko, you need to change things, try your best and work even harder’ and I’m happy things are going well and I can help the team.

“I want to keep this level and I am sure I am going to keep it if I continue to work like this.”

After a string of poor performances, there was noticeable disdain towards Arnautovic from a fanbase frustrated by a record signing failing to deliver.

Since his change in mind-set and form, though, the fans have more than warmed to their No.7, and he says Stratford now feels like home.

“I feel at home now,” he added. “We are all one big family and it doesn’t matter if it is hard or it is a good time. It’s easy to stick together in the good times, but it has to be that we all want to also stick together in the bad times, as this shows what a big family we are. That’s what I always want in this club.”

He continued: “It hurt me in the beginning when I heard people whistling me in the stadium because they expected me to do better.

“But now I am playing for my team and playing for the fans because the fans are a big part of this club. They pay a lot of money the whole year to come and watch us and, of course, they want us to perform.”