Mark Hughes says Marko Arnautovic nearly missed Stoke's win at Everton
Tuesday 29 December 2015 13:29, UK
Stoke boss Mark Hughes admits he almost left match-winner Marko Arnautovic out of the team to play Everton.
The Potters won a thrilling match 4-3 at Goodison Park, with Arnautovic setting up two goals and - in injury time - scoring the winner from the penalty spot.
Although the fixtures were just two days apart, Hughes opted to name the same starting XI for the game as he had for the impressive 2-0 home victory over Manchester United on Boxing Day.
Hughes said of the Austria forward: "Marko did great once again, but he was struggling before the game. I have to say, he was the one big gamble we had.
"I went with the same team and was happy enough with that - we had enough energy and I thought we could ride the wave of the Man United performance a little bit and see where it took us.
"Marko was probably the only one I had a real doubt over, but thankfully I went with a gut feeling and he has produced the goods again."
Arnautovic actually slipped as he took the penalty and Hughes admitted he had feared the worst.
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The manager said: "I noticed almost immediately and thought 'here we go', because there have been a few penalties in recent weeks where the ground was sodden and people have missed.
"But thankfully Marko didn't and was still able to get good power on it."
Xherdan Shaqiri's eye-catching effort made it 2-1 just before the interval and the Swiss was quick to declare the goal intentional.
Shaqiri, who had already opened the scoring with a finish subsequently cancelled out by Romelu Lukaku, restored his side's lead by meeting Bojan Krkic's lofted ball to the edge of the area with a touch that sent it floating over the stranded Tim Howard and in.
Some observers have labelled it a fluke, but others have hailed it as a goal-of-the-season contender and Shaqiri told The Sentinel: "I knew what I wanted to do... does it look like I didn't!?"
