Nuno Espirito Santo has ‘won’ the Sack Race after the complete breakdown of key relationships at Nottingham Forest produced the inevitable international-break outcome.
That has removed one of the few managers who had been providing some cover for Man United boss Ruben Amorim, who only really has misery and Graham Potter for company.
And here are possible replacement managers currently between jobs. Pretty much every one of them would have avoided defeat to Grimsby Town, we reckon.
20) Arne Slot (Liverpool)
Even after five wins from five games there is a small yet irritatingly confident part of our brain that remains stubbornly convinced Liverpool are going to completely f*ck it this season. The only real tangible thing to build this doom-laden scenario upon is a lack of depth at centre-back, but that voice won’t quit.
Most of our brain thinks they probably won’t f*ck it and might even be better than last season, but even that tiny idiot part convinced of pending disaster doesn’t think it could possibly materialise quickly or dramatically enough for Slot to be in any kind of danger before at least one other poor sod has been given the hook elsewhere.
Finally managed to win a game without needing a dramatic late goal against Everton, but didn’t quite put to bed those ‘weirdly flaky when 2-0 up’ allegations, either.
17=) Andoni Iraola (Bournemouth)
Among the least sackable managers in the top flight, and the only club we could really picture trying to lure him away this summer was Spurs and that’s now safely off the table.
It was a difficult summer for Bournemouth but Iraola had masses of credit in the bank and the excellent start they’ve made despite everything is only strengthening his standing.
17=) Thomas Frank (Tottenham)
It is still very early days and still too early to tell which way a promising-but-not-flawless start eventually breaks for Frank and Spurs.
He arrived to a club and squad with an awful lot of mess to sort out at history’s funniest ever Champions League qualifiers. He appeared to have already thoroughly De-Anged the lot of them only for them to then turn up against Bournemouth and defend like an Ange team while attacking like a Mourinho one.
You know who else won their first couple of games, including one against Man City, after stepping up to Spurs from a smaller but less daft Premier League club? That’s right. But while the Nuno comparisons are obvious, and a world in which Frank doesn’t make the November international break entirely possible, it doesn’t quite feel like the same situation.
Crucially, there has been no undignified scramble to find a new manager this time. Whatever your thoughts on the timing and manner of Ange Postecoglou’s sacking and the identity of his replacement, it’s also clear Spurs have got the man they wanted in a way they very obviously didn’t when Nuno came in.
That surely buys Frank a bit of time even if things do get hairy, which they haven’t done yet. Certainly a few others going to get canned before he does. Probably.
17=) Mikel Arteta (Arsenal)
An earlier version of this oft-updated piece speculated on what might happen to Mikel Arteta should Arsenal suffer from their Nightmare Start. What if they lost a few early games? What then? We concluded this:
It’s far likelier that Arsenal emerge blinking into the autumn sunshine broadly unscathed from their nightmare horrors. No denying that this season does represent one in which Arteta might completely lose the plot and go entirely off the rails. Or the one where he wins the league by 10 points. Feels like we’re odds-on to get one or the other.
Arsenal are broadly unscathed, yet it also does feel like they’re already playing catch-up from that all-too-familiar second place. So now we wait: is it full meltdown or sauntering to the league title? Nothing else will be tolerated or is indeed even possible.
READ: Who will be the next manager of Arsenal if Mikel Arteta is sacked?
16) David Moyes (Everton)
Things would have to go unbelievably wrong unbelievably fast, but this is Everton so, you know. Maybe. And there are few things that straddle the blessing-curse divide in football quite like a new stadium.
The benefits Everton should accrue come in the long term. In the short term there’s the loss of familiarity and – something that feels specifically important in this particular case – atmosphere while everyone gets used to the new surroundings.
Defeat at Leeds on the opening weekend was distinctly squibbish, but Everton have bounced back in some style since to suggest they could not just survive but thrive. With Jack Grealish in impish early-season form, they might even be fun.
14=) Regis Le Bris (Sunderland)
West Ham at home was a kind start for Sunderland and Le Bris, but boy did they cash in. Came back down to earth with a bump at Burnley, but the late turnaround to beat Brentford – and 0-0 draw with a good Palace side – means it’s a hugely encouraging start for the Black Cats and their manager.
14=) Eddie Howe (Newcastle)
At various points we’ve expended daft amounts of energy attempting to manifest a ‘Howe Sack’ crisis because we’re messy bitches who live for drama. But we’ve never managed to make it stick even a tiny bit and we started the summer thinking there was little imminent prospect of going for it again with Howe the hero of the Geordie Nation for delivering silverware and more lovely, lovely Champions League football.
Now, though, after a traumatic summer and the Alexander Isak Saga and a troubling winless start to the season, our Spidey Sense is tingling once more. We’re going to be right back in the saddle come November after a run of two draws and a defeat leaves the Magpies seven points outside the top six.
5=) Pep Guardiola (Man City)
A sacking remains out of the question despite last season’s (relative) struggles. There hasn’t been a Premier League manager since Fergie in his pomp with more credit in the bank than Pep.
But is there still a distinct chance Guardiola decides he’s had enough and simply walks away? We reckon there is, and it’s always worth remembering that we’re talking First Premier League Manager To Leave here, and that the traditional ‘Sack Race’ shorthand is a bit misleading.
Still, though. Almost no chance that could happen swiftly enough for nobody else to have been canned first. Even if consecutive defeats brought back memories of last winter.
5=) Marco Silva (Fulham)
Just a slightly less clear-cut version of Glasner really. Not about to be sacked, but could be in the frame for a poaching. And if that poaching comes from outside the Premier League, then he could technically be the next manager to go.
5=) Fabian Hurzeler (Brighton)
Fine end to 24/25 put a different complexion on Brighton’s season than at one time appeared likely. Ending up a clear best of the rest outside the quickly established top seven represented at least a passing grade and they’d have to make a truly awful start to the season to get in any kind of managerial-change bother.
It’s not been awful, but it’s really not been great either. Being above Manchester United is not the boast it used to be.
5=) Enzo Maresca (Chelsea)
One of the key early-season imponderables for 25/26 was just how big and what kind of impact the Club World Cup might have on the way Chelsea and Man City start the season. Would they hit the ground running, or would they be a bit tired and out of sorts? For both, it’s been rather more of the latter than the former.
He definitely still has some hearts and minds to win at Chelsea despite the fine finish to the season that saw them tick off Champions League qualification while completing their collection of UEFA pots and pans and then winning the actual Club World Cup.
A home draw with Crystal Palace wasn’t ideal, but the paddling dished out to West Ham has what really should at least be some kind of halfway credible title bid up and running at least. And we strongly suspect Fulham won’t be the last team left scratching their head after losing to Maresca.
There was some talk of ‘Maresca out’ after a draw with Brentford but that was surely only a minority view. After losing to Manchester United in shambolic fashion, there could be more on the wagon.
5=) Scott Parker (Burnley)
Burnley really do have a horrible start under a manager with a horrible record at this level, and have already been given a clear reminder by the team that finished 17th last season of just how much harder the ‘simply don’t concede any goals at all’ tactic is going to be to deliver in the Premier League.
Essentially, Burnley have got back to this level the same way Homer Simpson got to a heavyweight title fight. And Spurs have already given them a pummelling.
Victory over Sunderland was an impressive and necessary reminder that it might still be enough against teams more on their level, but Parker will still need some fairly early evidence it can also work against established Premier League teams, which makes Burnley’s start so problematic and that win over Sunderland both vital yet potentially deceptive.
There were encouraging signs before late heartbreak against eternally stupid Manchester United and against champions-elect Liverpool. A point against Forest was certainly a step in the right direction.
5=) Keith Andrews (Brentford)
The continuity candidate, but how much continuity can there be at Brentford given they’ve sold Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Christian Norgaard, while Thomas Frank took most of the remaining coaching staff with him to Tottenham? It’s a very Brentford move to promote from within but will they be forced into the very un-Brentford move of sacking him in October or November if and when the Bees are in a relegation battle?
5=) Oliver Glasner (Crystal Palace)
Won’t be sacked, obviously, because Palace are absolutely punching with an elite-level manager who is quietly delivering astonishing results in trying circumstances.
But with reports he was willing and ready to walk out if Marc Guehi was sold without a replacement point to new strains on a relationship that is bound to be tested in the weeks and months ahead.
Nailed it in the Community Shield, but as ever for clubs on Palace’s level there’s a positive-and-negative scale to be balanced by your manager catching the eye so conspicuously. Glasner absolutely could be poached with bigger beasts surely paying attention to the work he’s done at Selhurst Park.
And if that poaching comes from outside the Premier League, then it comes with the possibility of making Glasner the next Premier League managerial casualty. But still very unlikely.
The nerves at Selhurst Park will really kick in if/when Ruben Amorim gets the tin tack.
5=) Ange Postecoglou (Nottingham Forest)
Postecoglou’s football is high-risk, high-reward and the larger body of Premier League evidence does now point to it being quite dramatically and fundamentally flawed at this level.
And that was when he was deploying it with a Spurs squad far better suited to the approach than Nottingham Forest’s, especially in terms of defensive pace, mobility and technical ability.
While it’s all smiles now between Postecoglou and Marinakis, it’s really not that hard to imagine a world where that all changes very, very quickly. Heavy defeats at Arsenal can and do happen to anyone – draws with Burnley less so – but it is an inauspicious start nonetheless for a manager whose methods have suffered a further blow by the speed and extent with which Spurs have improved basic things like ‘defending set-pieces’ and ‘attacking set-pieces’ and ‘having a midfield’ under Thomas Frank.
5=) Daniel Farke (Leeds)
It would have made Spurs’ decision to sack Europa League-winning Ange Postecoglou look positively kind, but there remains a decent case that Leeds – and Burnley for that matter – could or even should have thanked the managers who secured 100 Championship points and got them back into the big time and then sent them on their way.
Farke had a dreadful Premier League record of only six wins and 26 points from his 49 games in charge of Norwich, a team he twice led to promotion from the Championship with 94 and 97 points.
As well as fighting his own record in this competition, Farke faces the added burden of expectation levels very different to those at just about any other club that could possibly find itself promoted into the Premier League in this current era where that represents the most bittersweet of successes.
Leeds’ lack of firepower against teams wallowing in slightly less despair than Wolves remains a concern, but two wins from the opening five games to go with a creditable draw against Newcastle is plenty enough to keep Farke gainfully employed for now.
4) Unai Emery (Aston Villa)
Really isn’t that long ago that Emery was listed among your Slots and your Iraolas in this market, but it’s been an alarmingly bleak start to the season for a striving club with lofty ambitions but a worrisome balance sheet.
Missing out on the Champions League in the manner they did at the end of last season was definitely a p*sser, and while Villa were perfectly good last season, it was one that felt a bit flat in the end. It was good, but it could have been great. They could have finished in the top five. They could have won the FA Cup. They could even have knocked out PSG in the Champions League after thar barnstorming Villa Park comeback.
These annoyances are real and meaningful, and have leaked into this season. They are already out of the Carabao and took until the fifth game of the season just to score a Premier League goal that still wasn’t enough to secure a first victory of the season at 10-man Sunderland.
Bleak fare indeed, and you do wonder whether Emery might now be minded to take any opportunity to jump ship that comes his way before his reputation starts to sink with Villa’s league position.
3) Vitor Pereira (Wolves)
Wolves absolutely love a sh*tbone awful start and enforced managerial change around November. The loss of key players and a disappointingly limp finish to last season after that thrilling run of wins through March and April mean those old doubts were nagging away even before a woeful pre-season, an opening-day paddling from new-look, old-destructiveness Man City and further defeats to Bournemouth, Everton, Newcastle United and now Leeds.
Pereira should theoretically be fine after the work he did in steering Wolves so comfortably clear of any relegation trouble last season contributed heavily to him being give a new three-year contract in September. But making terrible starts that leave them in apparent relegation trouble before surviving comfortably in the end after a managerial change appears to now be ingrained in the club culture, an issue that transcends players and managers.
There is some good news, though, because Wolves have a much-needed appointment scheduled with Dr Tottenham this weekend.
2) Ruben Amorim (Manchester United)
Feels like one could, if one were so inclined, make the case for him being both top and bottom of this list.
Top because United were staggeringly and at times unwatchably bad last season, as well as bottling the Europa League final in truly dismal fashion against planet earth’s most notorious pot-dodgers. Bottom because United have so clearly and determinedly nailed their colours to the Amorim mast that even if they remain staggeringly and at times unwatchably awful they might just stick with him out of pure stubbornness.
But can he survive defeat to Grimsby Town? Should he? Victory over Burnley helps, but it could scarcely have been less convincing. And my word, they looked broken against Manchester City. The 10-man win over 10-man Chelsea is not a turning point; they’ve run out of those.
READ: Who will be the next Man Utd manager if Ruben Amorim is sacked?
1) Graham Potter (West Ham)
That’s what four defeats in the opening five games will do to you after a summer where little went right for West Ham.
Sunderland and Chelsea were both very good, but the Hammers were honking on the opening day and arguably even worse against the Blues, with the perfectly rational view that Potter could not and should not be judged until he’d had the chance to get a pre-season’s worth of ideas across to his players already floundering.
But that victory over Forest, coming as it did with Lucas Paqueta’s don’t-come-and-get-me plea was impeccably timed. It would’ve been an unmanageable international break void had they lost that. Then any hint of renewed optimism was dashed by grim flaw-exposing defeats to Tottenham and Crystal Palace.
Hard to think of many teams who’ve more thoroughly propelled themselves into full ‘You fear for them’ territory so early in the season.
