Six Premier League teams one bad game away from a crisis already
A Premier League club is never too far away from disaster these days and even if we are just one game into a season, a bad result this weekend and it’s crisis time for a few teams.
Back in the day, looking at the table wasn’t something you did before say November, but those are the olden times, when there wasn’t social media and a desire for endless content.
Now, you’re only as good as your last game, and any grace period for a new season has been put to one side.
So with that in mind, here are six teams that will be hearing the word crisis a lot more should they dare to lose this weekend.
Manchester United
Back-to-back promoted teams to kick off your Premier League season looks like a present wrapped with a nice bow until it turns out it’s one of those trick presents a mousetrap inside.
United have already stumbled over their first banana skin with a 3-0 loss at Hull and there’s another coming on the horizon in the form of Ipswich.
Logic would say that the team that finished third in the Premier League last season would confidently beat the team that finished second in the Championship but…
Say, in this nightmare world for United fans, that they do conspire to lose two games in a row against the newly promoted sides, crisis alarms would be ringing.
There would be immediate questions about the manager, for Michael Carrick will not be afforded the cooling-off period to other Big Six managers. He had his warm-up period last season and you cannot claim to need more time with the players when you’ve had nothing but time for the last six cup-empty months.
This being Manchester United also means that everything is under a microscope. If a Sunderland or a Fulham lost back-to-back games against promoted sides, would it make the back pages? Would it be anything more than a small mention next to the League Two results?
Saying a team has to win in the second game of the season seems a little bit of a stretch, but it awfully does feel like that for United and Carrick.
Newcastle United
The nature of the summer has resulted in a lot of nervous Geordies.
A 2-2 draw against Liverpool is a good result on paper, but it featured a recurring problem for Newcastle – yet more points dropped from a winning position.
They lost 27 points last season from that kind of scenario, a league-high, and hope that Eddie Howe’s departure would solve that particular issue has proven to be incorrect in the first game at least.
There are also a lot of reasons why you can see it going wrong for Newcastle very quickly.
For a start, there is the player turnover, with a lot of new faces in the first team and a new manager to boot. We like what we know and so when you don’t have the familiarity of experience to fall back on, what else are fans to do but picture the absolute worse?
Some have made the claim Newcastle could struggle to stay in the league, which seems a stretch, but that thought may get some more credit should they lose to Tottenham this weekend.
Sunderland
Playing in Europe is great until it suddenly becomes a massive anchor on your Premier League exploits.
Sunderland are the hipsters’ choice for relegation candidates this year and the reason seems to be: how well can they cope with a European schedule and maintaining Premier League form?
Their north east neighbours are a reminder of how difficult it is to play midweek on a regular basis, and a loss away to promoted Ipswich is not exactly the best of starts.
Fulham at home this Sunday is a winnable game, but what if the Black Cats dont? Games against Arsenal and Manchester City sandwich their first Europa League tie and if the promoted teams continue their winning start to the year, relegation suddenly looks a lot more real.
Nottingham Forest
What’s worse than getting beat by Leeds? Getting beat by Leeds twice in the space of four days.
Oliver Glasner will be pleased not see the Yorkshire side on the other side of the pitch this weekend, but considering who his Forest team are actually playing, it’s not like his task gets any easier.
Liverpool, Tottenham and Aston Villa are the next three fixtures for Glasner, who could well have a record of five games played and five games lost to begin his time in charge of the powder keg that is Marinakis’ Forest.
Both characters can be combustible, with Glasner happy to speak out if he is unhappy with the higher-ups, while Marinakis’ presence in the stands has preceded more than one manager’s swift goodbye.
Forest have paid a king’s ransom to get Glasner in, but lose this weekend, even if it is the challenge of Liverpool away, and pre-season predictions that Forest could go down will feel a lot more credible.
Coventry City
Is the second game of the season the earliest ‘six-pointer’ in Premier League history?
It doesn’t half feel like one for Coventry, though, who had all the joy of a promotion campaign sucked out of them with a patting of the head 3-0 defeat away at Arsenal.
Frank Lampard’s mood will not have been boosted by the fact that the other two promoted sides won and, with Hull visiting the Coventry Building Society Arena this weekend, another defeat and things already look a bit worrying.
Aston Villa
A 4-0 smacking at the hands of Brighton has put Villa bottom of the Premier League table and, with days to go to their next fixture, they still lack an obvious number nine.
Even if Nicolas Jackson does arrive as expected, their attacking options look decidedly ordinary, with Unai Emery the latest manager who thinks he can fix Alejandro Garnacho.
Ezri Konsa is an obvious miss, as is Morgan Rogers, and Villa have not really replaced either of them. New signing Joao Gomes got himself sent off on the opening day so will be out for the next three games.
Emery is a manager you would back, and they had a shocking start last year, but a heavy defeat at the hands of Arsenal on Monday and Villa fans will start to worry.
