Former West Ham United striker Marko Arnautovic is currently shining in the top flight of Italian football with Bologna.
The former Hammers forward departed the London Stadium in the summer of 2019 to join Shanghai Port (formerly known as Shanghai SIPG) after a two-year spell with the Austrian international netting 21 times in 59 Premier League games for the Irons.
Arnautovic moved to China in a deal worth £22.4million and stayed there for two years before heading to Italy to play for Bologna, a club where he has just started his second season at.
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Last term, Arnautovic, who was last month linked with Manchester United, impressed in Italy’s top flight and scored 14 times in 33 league appearances for the Red and Blues, putting him joint-eighth in last season’s league scoring charts, two goals behind West Ham summer signing Gianluca Scamacca in sixth.
This season, Arnautovic has got off to a flying start and while his side Bologna currently sit 12 th with six points from a possible 18 so far, the former Hammer is top of the Serie A scoring charts, netting six times in as many games.
Arnautovic has scored six of Bologna’s seven league goals this season and has averaged a goal every 87 minutes so far this term, netting twice the amount his former club West Ham have in the league so far.
That total puts him two clear of anyone else in the league, with Juventus’ star striker Dusan Vlahovic currently among those in joint-second on four. Lazio’s serial goalscorer Ciro Immobile and Inter Milan star Lautaro Martinez, former Chelsea and Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud (now at AC Milan) and Torino’s Nikola Vlasic, on loan from the Hammers, are all on three.
Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku, who re-joined Inter on loan just a year after becoming the Blues’ most-expensive signing in history, has scored just once in three games since returning to the San Siro.
Serie A top scorers in 2022/23
- Marko Arnautovic (Bologna) – 6
- Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus) – 4
- Khvich Kvaratskheli (Napoli) – 4
- Beto (Udinese) – 4
- Teun Koopmeiners (Atalanta) – 4
- Boulaye Dia (Salernitana) – 3
- Ciro Immobile (Lazio) – 3
- Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan) – 3
- Nikola Vlasic (Torino) – 3
- Olivier Giroud (AC Milan) – 3
- Rafael Leao (AC Milan) - 3
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