Premier League Manager Watch: Who Is Under Pressure This Week

Premier League Manager Watch: Who Is Under Pressure This Week

The Premier League calendar has a way of accelerating narratives. Just four matchweeks have passed this season, yet a myriad of managers have come under pressure—two more than others.

Football is a stressful game at the best of times, and for Premier League managers, that stress is on another level. Fans expect results, owners demand alignment, and in the middle of it all, you’re trying to guide 30 men aged 15 to 40. In some cases—take Fabian Hurzeler—the players are older than the manager.

The balance is fragile: you are expected to be a strategist, counsellor, mentor, planner, politician, and so much more.

Right now, the pressure is on, and the spotlight is shining the brightest on Ruben Amorim and Graham Potter. But they are not the only ones under the brute force tension of the beast that is the Premier League.

Each case is different, but this is not a school, and the table does not grade on a curve.

Ruben Amorim

Start to the season:

One win, one draw, three losses

The last 10 months have been chaotic, disorganized, and all-around tumultuous for Ruben Amorim and Manchester United.

Just a year ago, Amorim had won six games on the bounce for Sporting Club after his emphatic title-winning season a year prior.

Now, he is under the most pressure and scrutiny he has likely encountered so far in his young career, as the Theatre of Dreams has slowly morphed into a Theatre of Nightmares.

Ruben Amorim's record in the Premier League 😬📊 pic.twitter.com/Iin5Kyx1e9

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 14, 2025

His time at United has left much to be desired. 47 games at the helm of one of the biggest clubs in the world has left him with a win percentage of just 36.17%—sitting 16% below David Moyes’ numbers, which themselves were the second-worst of the post-Ferguson era.

There was hope at the start of this season after the club splashing over £200 million on Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.

But after losses against Arsenal, Manchester City, and most notably Grimsby, Amorim has found himself lost with seemingly no way out.

As the pressure increases, only time will tell if his haphazard 3-4-3 formation will save or destroy him.

Graham Potter

Start to the season:

One win and four losses

Graham Potter must go to sleep every night and curse himself for ever leaving his cushy job at Brighton. When he swapped ships for Chelsea back in 2022, he was one of the highest-rated managers in the league and currently had the seaside club in fourth position in the league.

Since then, it has all been downhill. His life at Chelsea was soul-crushing. He had a paltry 38.71 win percentage and was sacked just seven months into the job.

Graham Potter under pressure at West Ham heading into their match against Crystal Palace ⚒️ pic.twitter.com/iZFVpWB5PZ

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 18, 2025

Now at West Ham, it looks like it will be two dismissals on the trot. Since he arrived at the Irons, he has managed just six wins in 25 games and during the first two games of this season, his side shipped eight goals to Sunderland and Chelsea, a Premier League record.

With many fans already demanding he be removed, he will have to impress massively to win back the trust of the fans, as well as the West Ham board.

Crystal Palace on the weekend is not a relegation six-pointer, but it has that feel. Win, and Potter will buy himself some time; lose, and the impatience around the London Stadium will swell.

Hopefully, Potter has his wizarding ways to hand, or things could get ugly.

Vitor Pereira

Start to the season:

One win and four losses

At the foot of the Premier League table, nine goals conceded—the second highest in the league—and the only team yet to earn a single point.

It is fair to say that Wolves' start to the season has not gotten off on the right foot.

The only saving grace for Vitor Pereira and his men is that they did manage to beat West Ham in the Carabao Cup, and they have faced strong opposition in Manchester City, Bournemouth, Everton and Newcastle United in the league.

Strangely, despite all of this, it was reported yesterday that Pereria had just signed a new three-year deal with Wolves.

Vitor Pereira's new contract keeps him at @Wolves for three more years 🐺 pic.twitter.com/P1FFGPI0Q0

— Premier League (@premierleague) September 18, 2025

As it stands, he is not under immense pressure. But the ever-watchful eye of the Wolves board will be keeping track of his progress.

If these losses keep coming and Wolves stay rooted to the bottom of the table, the amount of time he has left in charge will slowly shrink, and that shiny new contract he just signed would become irrelevant.

Unai Emery

Start to the season:

Two draws and three losses

At Football Park, we truly do not see a near future when Unai Emery is not at the helm of Aston Villa, but as the season progresses, there is no doubt that the pressure is starting to pile on.

With the Villans readying for their next match against newly-promoted Sunderland, they sit second from the bottom of the table with just two points. They are one of only two teams not to have won a league match this season, and when we expand to the top four flights of English football, they are the only team not to have scored a goal in league football.

Add this on to them not qualifying for last year's Champions League—courtesy of a 2-0 defeat to Manchester United in the last game week of the 2024/25 season—and Emery’s once cushy job has become slightly uncomfortable.

Unai Emery has always been the right man for the Aston Villa job, and he will be able to lead the club back to how things were looking toward the end of this past seasonhttps://t.co/0EGRuAXlpD

— Claret Villans (@ClaretVillans) September 18, 2025

They went out with a whimper in the League Cup after losing to Brentford on penalties; they have lost key players such as Morgan Rodgers, and there is a growing discontent with the owners at the club.

It truly is not a good time to be a Villa fan, made all the worse by the fact that this time last year, they had just beaten Young Boys 3-0 in the first match back in the Champions League in 41 years.

At the time, Unai Emery could do no wrong. John McGinn was in the form of his life, John Dhuran was bagging goals for fun, and they had a strong core of players in Emi Martinez, Pau Torres, and Ollie Watkins.

Emery has to turn this around fast, or risk moving closer towards the top of the sack race.