Everton boss Ronald Koeman probably never imagined the season being as difficult as it has been for the club. The Dutchman is now 15/8 favourite at Ladbrokes to be the next Premier League manager to leave his post after a rough start to the season. The Toffees ground out wins in each of their first four games this season, three of those in the Europa League, but then things turned a bit sour as they are currently running on a six match winless streak in all competitions.
They have lost their last four games, three in the Premier League and a heavy Europa League group stage loss against Atalanta, conceding twelve goals and scoring none in that four game losing sequence. So the Toffees have problems and no-one is producing for them up front. They actually put in a good shift against Manchester United on the weekend but still ended up losing 4-0 as they were so wasteful when chances did come their way.
This is all on top of them having spent a lot of money in the summer having brought in the likes of Sandro, Michael Keane, Nikola Vlasic and Gylfi Sigurdsson along with Wayne Rooney who they picked up on a free. They have scored just the two goals and have picked up only four points in their five Premier League games this season. But then, you look at their fixture list, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs and Man United in their last four games. The fixture list in the top flight gets a little easier for them coming up, so they have a chance to turn this around as they face Bournemouth, Burnley and Brighton in their next three league games.
So it may be worth opposing Koeman here, who has a good squad, and perhaps shouldn’t be too heavily criticised because as good as it is, it isn’t a top-four quality squad. The other men under immediate pressure are Slaven Bilic and Eddie Howe. Bilic West Ham had a rough start to the league season as well, but have picked up four points in their last two games, hinting that they could be pulling things together. The Hammers are level on points with Everton after five games played but look as if they have a lot more problems on their plate and after struggles last season, Bilic is probably closer to the door than Koeman is. Bournemouth have collected just the three points in their campaign so far but have a lot of trust and faith in Howe. Those points came in a much needed home win over Brighton last weekend to ease a little pressure. But they have been struggling for goals this season, like Everton.
In the Premier League relegation market, it is Crystal Palace are the 5/6 odds on favourites to take the drop. They became the first Premier League side ever to lose their opening five games of a season without scoring. Brighton are even money with Huddersfield at 6/4. Then comes Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth at a price of 2/1 while Everton are a huge old 40/1 price to suffer relegation but things aren’t going to get that bad for the Toffees, not with the squad that they have at their disposal.
Next Premier League Manager to Leave
Ronald Koeman – 15/8
Slaven Bilic – 2/1
Eddie Howe – 10/1
Craig Shakespeare – 12/1
Rafa Benitez – 12/1
Everton Specials
To win the Premier League – 300/1
To finish in the Top Four – 25/1
To go down – 66/1
