Like a sports day in elementary school, the bag race is well underway.
It’s that time in the Premier League season where teams are starting to figure out what the rest of the campaign has in store for them, and when those predictions are bad it usually ends with a header or two.
Here are the six managers most likely to receive the following startup.
Key stat: Burnley is Premier League’s weakest goalscorer (9)
Having just welcomed new owners to Turf Moor, maybe it’s time for a change.
Burnley finds himself flirting with a relegation battle this season, and it’s hard to see the new bosses accept a drop to second level in their first year with the club.
Sean Dyche definitely needs to prove he should be kept going for the future, but luckily it’s not hard to see him do that.
While Burnley is horribly inconsistent, they are capable of achieving results when they are at their best. A good run of results would do wonders for Dyche, but things could just as easily turn the other way.
Key stat: Wolves haven’t won in their last six Premier League outings
Wolves have been a roller coaster ride in recent years and Nuno Espirito Santo has been there every step of the way.
They finished seventh in 2018/19 and 2019/20, but this year they are in 14th place. No longer being the courageous outsiders, the Wolves are struggling to assert themselves and the results have not been easy to obtain.
With the amount of money invested in the playing team, Wolves clearly believe they should be near the top of the table, so a one-game winning streak in nine games is unlikely to be very good in the boardroom. Molinous.
He is not meeting the high standards of him this year, and he will start to worry if this trend continues.
Key statistic: Sheffield United are currently on track for the worst points total in Premier League history (
A tricky question here. Normally, if you’re the manager of a side down in the Premier League by January, you’re definitely going to be sacked – especially if you’re only on five points.
This is the situation Chris Wilder finds himself in with Sheffield United, just a year after leading the Blades within five points of a Europa League spot.
If he was anyone else he would be gone by now, but Sheffield United’s loyalty to Wilder, who helped guide the club from the bottom of Ligue 1 to the top.
Wilder is in a perilous position, but his connection to the club may well save him.
Key stat: Allardyce has only won one of his first four games as West Brom manager
Sam Allardyce just came over to try and keep West Brom from being relegated, but it’s not really working right now.
To Allardyce’s credit, he led the Baggies to good results against Liverpool and Wolves, but he made up for that with humiliating losses to Leeds and Aston Villa.
If you can’t win against the so-called small teams, those big points mean nothing. West Brom won’t escape the relegation zone with this kind of inconsistency.
Club officials don’t want to be relegated, while Allardyce will want to avoid tarnishing his perfect record of never being relegated. If things don’t improve, expect mutual termination here.
Key stat: Chelsea are as close to the 14th as they are to the 1st
Frank Lampard has spent more than £ 200million over the summer and, although he has warned Chelsea are not going to win the title, he has promised fans will see improvement.
Where is it?
Chelsea have always struggled to compete with their rivals – they haven’t beaten any of the traditional ‘big six’ – but results against smaller teams haven’t always been there either. There were good times, but they were made up for by terrible times.
You get the feeling that Lampard would have been long gone if he was anyone else, but even loyalty to the club’s greatest midfielder can only go so far.
Key statistic: Newcastle have lost seven of their last 11 Premier League games
Newcastle fans have always been divided over Steve Bruce, but it looks like things have really fallen apart recently.
Without a win in nine games, Newcastle fell to 15th place in the table, but it was the performances in those games that were more of a concern than the results.
Newcastle have been too often appalling and uninspired, prompting Bruce to describe the team (via The Times) as “hopelessly desperate”. He said he wanted to do things his own way, and immediately followed up with a tame 3-0 loss to Arsenal.
Everything is deteriorating at an alarming rate, and Bruce must find a solution quickly or he will find himself without a job.
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