Could Poyet Get Sack Before Pardew?

Last updated : 01 October 2014 By Footy Mad - Editor

Things move fast in the Premier League, and Pardew (odds to be the next manager to go - 1/6) may already have Ashley looking for a replacement.

The Toon owner apparently made clear that defeat at Stoke would spell the end for his manager (despite later calling the whole thing a big joke -- what a prankster!), so after Peter Crouch's goal was enough to inflict a 1-0 defeat on the Toon, one assumes the end is near.

How long before there is serious talk of Harry Redknapp (9/1) being in trouble at QPR?

Rangers have won just once in the league, only Everton have a worse defensive record and only Burnley a worse goals-for total.

Some early-season tinkering with a three-man defence has been abandoned, but QPR sit in the bottom three and have a fairly horrible-looking run coming up, facing games against Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and the implausibly high-flying Aston Villa in the next few weeks.

It's possible that QPR won't get a single point from those games, which obviously makes this weekend's clash with West Ham utterly crucial, because if they reach November with only one victory in the bank, then the rumblings will surely start getting louder and louder.

The only teams other than Newcastle without a win this term are Burnley and Sunderland, and while the former's problems probably have more to do with a summer transfer window in which a collection of Championship-standard players were recruited than manager Sean Dyche (12/1), the 'Ginger Mourinho' could still find himself in trouble if they don't pick up a win soon.

Gus Poyet (10/1) is in a more precarious position, because while Sunderland fans aren't exactly demanding the moon on a stick, expectations are a little higher on Wearside.

Should this winless run continue for much longer, then owner Ellis Short may well act, as he has done before when things were going wrong at the Stadium of Light.

Sam Allardyce (12/1) can certainly feel a little safer than when the previous edition of this column went out, with West Ham showing signs of the improved football demanded of him in the summer, a particularly fine performance coming in their win over Liverpool.

However, the Hammers still only have two wins to their name, and success in their next two fixtures, against QPR and Burnley, will be crucial in affording Allardyce some breathing space.

Another man who has presided over a better than expected start to the season is Alan Irvine (7/1), an appointment by West Brom that quite frankly looked insane in the summer, but some steady performances and impressive wins have steadied things rather for both club and manager.

Still, it will only take a poor run of which West Brom are more than capable to tip things the other way.