This weekend feels like a crucial one in the Premier League. There are a number of managers who are seemingly on the brink of being sacked from their roles and a bad result in their next game could be the tipping point. West Ham United against Everton is a fixture that falls under the category of ‘El Sackico’, with the pressure on the losing manager – if there is one – going to be extreme. Liverpool versus Chelsea is, inexplicably, a 9th against 10th fixture, whilst Leicester City take on Brighton at home and Tottenham travel to Fulham on Monday night desperately needing a win.

The Premier League is a ruthless division, with the consequence of relegation huge. Managers are not often afforded too much time to turn results around if things aren’t going too well, so who will be the next manager to lose their job?

Antonio Conte

Having lost with a whimper to fierce rivals Arsenal in the north London derby, Tottenham Hotspur threw away a shock 2-0 lead over Manchester City to end up losing 4-2. Tottenham’s fanbase is currently a very divided one, with frustrations over the ownership, lack of investment into the squad and ability to get signings over the line coming to the boil. Despite this, Antonio Conte should still be doing a lot better than he currently is. He may feel he does not have the personnel to play the way he wants, but ultimately a manager’s job is to find ways of getting results and he is struggling to do that this season. The Italian’s stubbornness is becoming a real problem and some of the blame for results and performances must begin to fall at his door.

Tottenham’s squad has needed refreshing for a long time now, with Mauricio Pochettino identifying this issue five years ago, but there is still a lot of talent there. Hugo Lloris has been a liability in goal for some time now, whilst the likes of Eric Dier and Heung-Min Son are woefully out of form. These factors certainly don’t help Conte, but his outright refusal to deviate from his play-style and tactics are becoming problematic. Monday’s fixture away at Fulham feels massive, particularly given how well the Cottagers are playing this season. Conte is at loggerheads with the Tottenham board and it rarely ends well for those managers that choose to go to war with Daniel Levy, whether well-intentioned or not.

Frank Lampard

Goodison Park is arguably the most toxic home ground in the Premier League currently. The Everton faithful are another set of supporters who are very vocally against the club’s hierarchy and protests have began to gather momentum. When you look at Everton’s spending over the past few seasons and compare it with what they have to show for it on the pitch you can begin to understand why.

That being said, it does not help that they have a manager in the dugout who has offered little in terms of tactical nous in his post-playing career to date. Frank Lampard became Everton manager following the sacking of the much-maligned Rafa Benitez almost exactly a year ago. Fans of the Toffees never took to Benitez – due to his strong connection with rivals Liverpool – but equally he did little to improve the side and they were sleepwalking into a relegation battle. Lampard came in and kept the club up with a game to spare but this season has been much the same, despite many expecting Everton to never find themselves in a relegation battle again.

You could argue that it was the Everton support that kept them up last season and not Lampard, such was the ferocity with which the fans backed their club at the tail-end of the campaign. Lampard’s record is worse than his predecessor’s, Benitez, and he is far from blameless in Everton’s inability to improve. Last weekends defeat in a crucial game at home against Southampton having taken the lead meant that they have now gone seven league games without victory and sit 19th in the table ahead of another massive game against fellow relegation zone dwellers West Ham this weekend.

David Moyes

The manager in the opposing dugout of that relegation six-pointer between West Ham and Everton is David Moyes. The Scottish manager enjoyed a successful 11 years in charge of this weekend’s opponents and there has been some talk that he could be lined up to replace Lampard at Everton should the managerial merry-go-round commence. To add to this, it is Benitez that has been heavily linked with replacing Moyes should West Ham relieve him of his duties; prices on this being slashed by bookies in recent days.

On the face of it, it may seem harsh for West Ham to sack the manager who steadied the ship before 6th and 7th-placed finishes and a Europa League semi-final. However, there is a feeling that Moyes has taken this group of players as far as he can and they are now regressing as a result of him trying to take them to that next level. They were a very efficient counter-attacking side, but as clubs have grown wise to that, and investment has been made on players such as Lucas Paquetá and Gianluca Scamacca, Moyes has struggled with the task of turning them into a side that control games and play through the thirds. Injuries have played their part this season, particularly in defence, but there is still no excuse for West Ham to be in the relegation zone with 15 points after 19 games. It feels increasingly likely that Moyes will be the next Premier League manager to become unemployed.

Jesse Marsch

Jesse Marsch is another manager who, from the outside, it appears is doing a reasonable job. His open nature in interviews and likeable personality may contribute to this and his open playing style too; given that neutrals enjoy exciting football. Excitement at the expense of results does not please fans, though. Leeds United are winless in five and are two points clear of the drop zone, albeit with a game in hand on all those below them.

The exhilarating play-style of Marcelo Bielsa being adopted by a manager from the Red Bull school of pressing football was always going to lead to a thrilling and chaotic team to watch, and that is just what Leeds have been. They lost their two best players in the summer in Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha but invested well on the likes of Marc Roca, Tyler Adams and Wilfried Gnonto. Gnonto, in particular, looks a huge talent at just 19 and is currently one of the most intriguing players to watch in the league. There is plenty of talent at Elland Road and Marsch is trying to find the best way to utilise that. It would be harsh to not give him the time to do so.

Graham Potter

When Graham Potter was made Chelsea boss following Thomas Tuchel’s sacking at the end of September a few eyebrows were raised. Not because Potter is not a very good manager and one whose reputation was ever-growing, but because Chelsea tend to go for managers that are ready-made trophy winners and guarantee short-term success. That being said, this was a new Chelsea regime under Todd Boehly and the approach to ownership could differ hugely those that came before.

Potter was the first manager appointed by Boehly. It represented an interesting choice as Potter is a manager whose reputation has grown through his ability to improve individual players and the ‘process’ he oversees at a club. Having had an unconventional route to elite management, there were those that felt this job was perhaps too big for him. For Potter it was understandably too good an opportunity to pass up, but it may dent his reputation in the short-term if he cannot turn things around.

Chelsea’s scattergun approach to recruitment is certainly not helping and the failure to sign an out-and-out striker and instead collecting attacking midfielders and wingers is both reckless and counter-intuitive in equal measure. Chelsea are spending money as though it is going out of fashion and sitting 10th in the table will not be the desired result. We have no evidence of how long Boehly’s patience will last with his own appointment, but it must be wearing thin.

Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers is the last manager on the list of those who are seemingly in imminent danger of being sacked. He has had some real highs at Leicester City, including consecutive fifth-place finishes and an FA Cup trophy. Those triumphs feel like distant memories for Foxes fans now though. Last season Rodgers guided his side to 8th in the league after a season ravaged by injuries, but this term they find themselves 15th and two points from safety after 19 games played. They have lost their last four league games, with the most recent 2-0 defeat to rivals Nottingham Forest a particularly bitter pill to swallow.

The club have suffered from a severe lack of investment in recent transfer windows, with Wout Faes the only incoming in the summer despite the squad’s obvious need of reinforcements. To some extent, Rodgers has done well to keep peddling water and keep Leicester competing, but it just feels as though things have gone a little stale at the King Power. Rodgers has recently referred to the net spend of the Foxes in his time in charge being astronomically lower than the clubs that they are expected to compete against and he may well have a point. However, excuses quickly grow tiresome in football. Rodgers looks as though he might have taken Leicester as far as he can and risks harming his legacy the longer he stays. A new face in charge at the club and a new job for Rodgers may be what is best for all parties.

The fact that there are at least six of the 20 Premier League managers with a genuine chance of losing their jobs as a result of the outcome of this weekend’s matches is difficult to comprehend. There may be those that would say Jurgen Klopp needs to be careful with his Liverpool side in 9th, but there would be uproar among the Liverpool faithful if the board were to even dream of sacking the German. Despite being new to the job, Nathan Jones looked in trouble, but three wins in a row has given the Southampton manager some breathing space.

So, who will be the next manager to be sacked in the Premier League?