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Signed for a cut-price £2 million in the summer, the 24-year-old, has dazzled in his first few appearances in the Premier League. Mark Hughes even went so far as to suggest that the Austrian's enforced substitution at Old Trafford cost them a chance of returning with any share of the points, in what was to be a narrow 3-2 defeat.
Arnautvic played for six different youth clubs during his teens before settling at FC Twente, where he went on to make 44 appearances, netting a respectable 12 league goals from his favoured number 10 role. He was managed by Steve McLaren, during his first Dutch odyssey, who admitted that the Austrian was the hardest player he has ever worked with.
A (dismissed) allegation of racial abuse followed soon after, in March 2009, and that summer Arnautovic and his agent engineered a lucrative loan switch to Inter Milan under Jose Mourinho, in what would prove to be the Italian sides treble winning campaign. Injuries and off field drama limited the forward to making just three appearances for the Nerazzurri in his loan spell. This disappointment on field did not prevent the player from returning to his parent club with 'Champions League winner' stitched into his boots, despite failing to make a single European appearance in Inter's remarkable run.
Ask Jose Mourinho about his year managing Arnautovic and the Portuguese regretfully mused that he was a "fantastic person with the attitude of a child." In fact, his stay in Italy was more famous for the time when he borrowed Samuel Eto'o's car, left it outside a restaurant and returned to find that the Bentley had been stolen.
After unsurprisingly failing to secure a permanent move to the Italian giants, Arnautovic was signed by Bremen for a considerable fee of £6.5 million in 2010. Here, his record of generating attention off field continued. He courted controversy before even playing a game, earning the ire of Werder Bremen captain, Torsten Frings, who labelled the young Austrian "arrogant" after a pre season training 'incident'.
His rap sheet continues as such: suffering knee ligament damage after playing with his dog, being caught speeding with team mate Elarijo Elia and suspended by the club, responding to being stopped by the police with the infamous "Shut up, I earn so much I can buy your life", a training ground punch-up with Sokratis Papastathapolous and describing the port city of Bremen as a "dump".
The German tabloids must have rued his switch to the Premier League, but so far the Austrian has kept out of the papers and has been given a free role by Mark Hughes. His ability to court attention on and off the pitch has led to comparisons with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Indeed, both are not typically 'quick' forwards but are psychical specimens with enormous technical capability. His off field activities may not be the most endearing, but if he continues to bring his showmanship to the Britannia you won't hear many fans complaining at the £2 million outlay.
