After today’s three o’clock fixtures, it seems there are THREE Premier League managers who are hanging on to their jobs by the skin of their teeth. Manuel Pellegrini, Marco Silva AND Unai Emery are all under massive pressure following more bad results for their respective sides this week.
Managers on the hot seat Manuel Pellegrini
Having spent a fair chunk of money in the summer and broken the bank to bring in the likes of Sebastian Haller and Pablo Fornals – West Ham are having a shocking time of it lately. Over the last few months, West Ham have been absolutely dire to watch – home, away, league or cup – they’ve been poor.
Their last win came on September 22nd – exactly two months ago. Granted, it was a very good win against Manchester United at the London Stadium, but the results since have been nothing short of abysmal. The Hammers are winless for eight games – including a 4-0 battering away at lowly Oxford United in the league cup, which came just three days after the Manchester United win.
As well as that, losses in the league to the likes of Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Everton – as well as dropped points against Sheffield United – it’s made for grim viewing. To be honest, I expected Pellegrini to be sacked during the recent international break, but the hierarchy decided not to pull the trigger. However, I would be surprised if today’s performance and loss to Tottenham could just be the straw that breaks the camels back…
Marco Silva
Everton – they seem to be the team we all expect big things from every year, but they just can’t get the managerial appointment correct no matter how much money they spend on transfers. It seems, despite all the evidence beforehand showing it was a solid appointment, that Everton have gone and made another poor decision….
Everton sit 15th in the table at the moment having picked up just four wins and a whopping seven losses already this term. Today’s result saw them lose 2-0 at home to a team who hadn’t scored a goal in an away game for 106 days. The worst part is, they didn’t even look like they had any chance of beating a Norwich side that cost about 50p to assemble.
If the Everton ownership isn’t looking at this and seeing a clear issue with the way things have been run on the field lately, there’s something drastically wrong. Now seems as good a time as any to pull that trigger. If I was them, I’d be eyeing up a move for somebody like Niko Kovac – the recently dismissed Bayern Munich manager.
Unai Emery
What more is there to say about this? The fact this man is still in a job is absolutely baffling to me – the Arsenal board has shown no gusto and absolutely zero passion for their club this season. They seem absolutely peachy with Arsenal bumbling along fighting to finish in the top six – picking up the odd win here and the odd draw there.
They currently sit seventh in the Premier League, and it seems more than likely that’s roundabout where they’ll stay for the remainder of the season. The game before the international break at Leicester showed there is clear daylight in the quality difference between the Gunners and the current top four.
Even today, they fell behind early doors to Southampton – who are second bottom of the Premier League and have been most of the season. They did manage to equalise but then fell behind again, only to be saved for a second time by Alexandre Lacazette in the 90th minute. That’s Arsenal’s sixth draw of the season.
The truth is, the appointment of Unai Emery was never a step up from Arsene Wenger. To be honest, I’m looking at Arsenal right now and I see a team that has just kept going backwards for three/four years. The problems stem from much higher up than the dugout – but it’s clear Unai Emery isn’t fit to be the man in that dugout. It may not solve a thing to begin with, but sacking Emery is the first step for Arsenal on the path towards salvation from the pit of despair they currently find themselves in.
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