Good Weekend for Chris Hughton and Roy Hodgson: EPL Sack Race Still to Get Going

In what has been a refreshing period of boardroom patience with the man in charge of his team’s dressing room, the question has to be raised: Who will be the first manager to be officially sacked this season?

Martin O’Neill made a high-profile exit this summer; however, he was not forcibly removed from his post. What can also be said is that the departure came before a ball was kicked in this season’s Premier League.

So, what of the 20 incumbents facing pressure from the media or internally? Most people’s favourite to go would be Roy Hodgson, whose start to life at Liverpool has been far from successful. The Reds’ off-field problems are largely behind them with the takeover by NESV, bringing to an end the turbulent spell of the Hicks-Gillett era.

Despite the change at the top, results have not been good enough for the Liverpool fans, who saw their team still in the relegation zone until a scrappy win at Bolton, suffering a humiliating home defeat to Blackpool and, in front of the new owners, a pitiful attempt at a battle with rivals Everton.

Whether Hodgson receives his marching orders remains to be seen. What can be said of the Everton defeat is that losing to your rivals is the easiest way to put yourself in the firing line. If this is the case, Steve Bruce managed it with style on Sunday.

Having sold or isolated nearly every member of the squad he inherited, the Sunderland manager has now adopted a new tactic: not start the striker you paid £13.2m for and then moan to the media about your over-reliance on Darren Bent to score goals.

Tactically, the Geordie-born Bruce did himself no favours on Sunday.

Despite the emphatic result of the Tyne-Wear derby, it was Bruce’s opposite number who seemed sure to face the chop during the week. Chris Hughton has never seemed to be completely secured in the poison chalice of football—manager of Newcastle United.

Bookmakers even went as far as to stop taking bets on Hughton becoming the next managerial casualty of the Premier League season.

However, games can change the media’s outlook, no doubt after the fans’ most important game ended in crushing victory over their rivals. Newcastle supporters will surely have no complaints over the manager who brought them back from the depths of the Football League last season.

Even when your team is doing well, you’re not immune from criticism in some sections of the media. Sam Allardyce performed minor miracles to lift Blackburn into the top half of the table last season, but a shaky start this time around has seen his style of play once again questioned as “route one” and “the ugly side of the Premier League.”

However, it is the table that does not lie, and while Mick McCarthy can look back with a certain relaxation considering where he took Wolves from, the only team beneath them, West Ham United, will have serious questions about their manager Avram Grant.

The first choice to succeed Gianfranco Zola in the summer, the Israeli former-Chelsea man, has not so far delivered.

Owners Gold and Sullivan have come out and pledged him time to turn it around, the most dangerous thing to have if you have been appointed by these owners. Zola was given “time,” which is true to an extent, although the time lasted less than half a year despite keeping the club up on a shoestring budget (nobody signs Mido and Ilan as his strikers out of choice).

Should City decline, you can be sure Roberto Mancini’s name will be bandied around with little haste, as will Roberto Martinez if his Wigan team begins to falter again, but it looks likely for the time being that Grant’s days are numbered as long as his side stays within a chance of playing rivals Millwall in the Championship next season.