Premier League 2018/19: 5 managers who could be gone by Christmas

#4 Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson's Crystal Palace have begun to struggle again this season

Former England boss Roy Hodgson has built a great deal of good will from both the board and the fans at Crystal Palace due to the miracle he pulled off in 2017/18 – the Eagles were rooted to the bottom of the table without a single win prior to his arrival, but Hodgson turned things around to the point where Palace finished 11th and ended the season on a 3-match winning streak.

Unfortunately, goodwill can only take a manager so far and right now Palace look like they’re on a major slide. They haven’t won a game since their September victory over fellow strugglers Huddersfield, and an encouraging 2-2 draw with high-flying Arsenal was then followed by a disappointing defeat to Chelsea.

It’s almost hard to pinpoint what’s been going wrong at Selhurst Park, too. Hodgson has used largely the same personnel as last season – Patrick van Aanholt, Mamadou Sakho, Luka Milivojevic and Wilfried Zaha being key players – but he has lost Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Yohan Cabaye, who both played major roles in 2017/18.

It almost feels like Hodgson himself has bought into the much-discussed fan theory that the Eagles are a one-man team who purely rely on the influence of Zaha to win their games – and unsurprisingly, he’s been their best player thus far. But he’s also played 10 of 11 league games, and Palace have still lost 7 of them. Hodgson certainly isn’t doomed yet, but with tough games against Spurs and Manchester United coming up this month, he may well find himself skating on thin ice soon.