Premier League sack race odds: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Mikel Arteta, Frank Lampard getting an easy ride without fans?
Joe Townsend asks whether Premier League managers, at the Big Six clubs in particular, are benefitting most from behind-closed-doors matches.
There isn't a single manager in England who would openly admit that they prefer the current situation of stadiums being empty, with matches being played in a soulless, sterile environment.
I don't believe for one minute they do either; when things are going well.
But what about when they're not? Supporters are quite rightly the barometer for success at any football club, voicing discontent at performances, results or both. And what is becoming ever clearer is that it's impossible to frame a proper narrative without them.
When it comes to managerial departures, things really aren't atypical this term.
Watford's sacking of Javi Gracia four games into 2019/20 has to be taken in isolation given the club's trigger-happy reputation - it was a dozen matches before Mauricio Pochettino left Spurs and Slavisa Jokanovic was given the same length of time before Fulham made him 2018/19's first departure.
Go back a season further and Frank de Boer's bizarre, short-lived spell at Crystal Palace lasted only four games. Craig Shakespeare exited Leicester after eight, and a poor opening nine matches cost Ronald Koeman his job at Everton.
Swansea's Francesco Guidolin survived seven fixtures in 2016/17 and Dick Advocaat got a game further at Sunderland in 2015/16 - his resignation pipped Liverpool's sacking of Brendan Rodgers by a matter of hours.
So it really isn't out of the ordinary for all 20 top-flight bosses to still be in post at this stage of a campaign, but we are definitely reaching tipping point if recent history is anything to go by.
What does make the current season unusual is that so few managers seem to be under pressure.
Big Six current league positions
- Liverpool - 2nd
- Chelsea - 9th
- Arsenal - 10th
- Tottenham - 11th
- Man City - 13th
- Man Utd - 15th
Correct at 12:00 GMT 26/10/20
Incredible 7-2 thrashing at Aston Villa aside, champions Liverpool have made a solid start to the season, but they are the solitary Big Six team to come close to expectations.
Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the only manager among the Premier League's elite clubs to have faced any kind of pressure, but even his price on becoming the first casualty of the campaign tumbled following a 6-1 humbling by Spurs, not as a consequence of poor results overall. There has been the odd moan about Frank Lampard's struggles to get Chelsea firing, but not a significant amount.
It should be considered a good thing that managers are being afforded more patience than usual thanks to the absence of tens of thousands of screaming fans questioning their every decision and calling for them to be given the boot.
Even at the wrong end of the table there doesn't seem to be the same pressure cooker surrounding a potential sacking. The teams below 15th-placed Man Utd are arguably ones you'd expect to be there, perhaps with the exception of 2019/20 surprise package Sheffield United. Scott Parker is the Sack Race favourite, but really that is putting two and two together with Fulham bottom and yet to win a game.
But when has a bad team being in a bad league position stopped a decent manager losing their job? Maybe this season it will be different... don't hold your breath.
If that does indeed turn out to be a positive, then there has been one huge negative to emerge from the lack of accountability empty stadiums provide.
It might seem bizarre to write about a lack of entertainment during a season that has seen an unprecedented goal return in its opening weeks, and I wouldn't for one moment suggest it hasn't been a brilliant beginning to the 2020/21 Premier League.
But fans being the ultimate gatekeepers of a football club was brought home by a couple of fixtures over the weekend: Manchester United's goalless draw with Chelsea and Leicester's 1-0 win at Arsenal.
Arguably, the majority of teams in the top flight simply need to pick up points - by any means. There are a select few, though, who must do it with a panache and swagger befitting of that club.
With 75,000 fans in the stadium ready to watch Man United play a Chelsea team renowned for defensive incapability, and with Solskjaer already teetering following a poor start to the league campaign, how would his team selection have been received?
🍿👊 Fair to say Patrice Evra v Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was more entertaining than the match...pic.twitter.com/4f7kKTIGmd
— Sporting Life Football (@SportingLifeFC) October 24, 2020
Paul Pogba, Donny van de Beek, Mason Greenwood and Edinson Cavani were left on the bench as holding midfielders Fred and Scott McTominay, and more defensively-minded wide men Juan Mata and Dan James started instead.
Even the pragmatic Sir Alex Ferguson must've been moving uncomfortably in his seat when he saw that team news.
At least with Chelsea the argument could be made that Lampard needed to find a way to keep clean sheets, and has now done so in successive matches. But his team mustered just one shot on target at Old Trafford and deserved to lose to an abject United totally lacking in imagination - is that what Roman Abramovich spent hundreds of millions of pounds on attacking players for in the summer?
If the defence of Solskjaer is to reference their defeat by Tottenham, then surely a 4-1 win at Newcastle and superb 2-1 victory at PSG had consigned that to history?
The way the match played out was a sad manipulation of the current climate, and what's worse is I don't think Lampard and Solskjaer are the only ones playing that game.
Mikel Arteta was like the boy who cried wolf following Arsenal's late defeat by Leicester, angry at how the Foxes had put everyone behind the ball and frustrated his team - probably because it stopped him being able to do it to them.
Undoubtedly the former Gunners captain has improved results since replacing Unai Emery 10 months ago, but contrast what he has done at the Emirates with the progressive steps Carlo Ancelotti is making at Everton to narrow the gap on the top four, with arguably a less talented squad than Arteta has at his disposal, and it's pretty jarring.
Despite being schooled by Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, the Spaniard more resembles an old school Jose Mourinho.
Delivering an FA Cup and Community Shield gave him a certain amount of currency with the club's supporters, but very quickly great swathes of them used social media on Sunday to voice their disapproval with the current style of play - without a stadium full of fans, that's the closest barometer we're going to get.
There is no credit in the bank when results begin to drop off should the entertainment value be lacking.
Only five Premier League teams have scored fewer goals than Arsenal's eight this season, and they're 16th for number of shots. This is a club renowned for swashbuckling attacking football over more than 20 years under Arsene Wenger.
Yes there is a balance to be sought, but the Gunners are 10th and have lost half their games so Arteta isn't finding it.
Even Mourinho has realised that after scabbing Spurs to sixth during lockdown, there had to be more on offer this season. Who would've thought Jose would be the more forward thinking of the two.
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