Pressure mounting on Pellegrini, Emery and Silva
Pressure is mounting for Premier League managers Manuel Pellegrini, Unai Emery and Marco Silva.
West Ham, Arsenal and Everton have all suffered disappointing starts to the season, with the latter two sitting just outside the relegation zone and the Gunners already eight points off the Champions League places.
Here, the PA news agency takes a look at the Premier League fixtures facing the three managers this weekend.
Chelsea v West Ham (Saturday)
The fourth-bottom Hammers face yet another challenging test this weekend, coming up against in-form Chelsea. Frank Lampard’s young side have won six of their last seven league matches – a stark contrast to West Ham, who are without a victory in any competition since September. Pellegrini is looking for his first win over Chelsea as West Ham boss but did claim three victories and two draws in eight meetings against the Blues while in charge of Manchester City.
Norwich v Arsenal (Sunday)
Emery takes his struggling side to Norfolk in the hope of getting a first league win in six games, with the Gunners having suffered their worst start to a Premier League season. Defence seemingly remains a problem, with Arsenal only having kept two clean sheets so far, but they have also been short of goals and are the only team in the top half of the Premier League with a negative goal difference. They have, however, lost just once in their last 15 visits to Carrow Road and could move up to fifth if results go their way this weekend.
Leicester v Everton (Sunday)
Silva’s Everton find themselves only one point and one place better off than West Ham after winning just four of their 13 league games this season. They spent big in the summer, recruiting the likes of Fabian Delph from Manchester City, Alex Iwobi from Arsenal and Moise Kean from Juventus, but the Toffees have yet to reap the dividends of that investment. Goalscoring has been an issue, with only three teams having netted fewer than Everton’s tally of 13, and that could be a problem against a Foxes side which boasts the tightest defence in the division.
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