Frank Lampard, Alvaro Arbeloa, Roberto De Zerbi, Michael Carrick and Unai Emery: Who could be the first manager to lose his job?

Four games into the 2026-27 Premier League season, the managerial merry-go-round is already spinning.

Eight clubs began the campaign with new managers, one of the most unsettled landscapes in the competition's recent history.

Coventry City have lost all four league matches without scoring a goal.

Fulham have a single point under new manager Alvaro Arbeloa.

Manchester United have won once in four matches and followed it with a League Cup collapse against Brighton.

Tottenham Hotspur are still waiting for their first league goal of the season.

Aston Villa, for all Unai Emery's pedigree, have not won a league game either.

The first international break is now less than a week away, an extended 16-day window running from September 21 to October 6.

That makes this weekend's fixtures unusually significant.

Sports Mole takes a look at which Premier League manager could be the first to lose his job this season.

2026-27 Premier League sack race: The numbers are impossible to ignore for Frank Lampard

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If the sack race were decided on results alone, Frank Lampard would be the obvious starting point.

Coventry have lost all four Premier League matches, scoring zero goals and conceding 10, and sit bottom of the table.

The defeats have come against Arsenal, Hull City, Manchester City and, most damagingly, a 5-0 loss to Brighton at the CBS Arena.

Coventry were reduced to 10 men in that game when Taiwo Awoniyi was sent off in the 53rd minute for an elbow on Brighton's Maxim De Cuyper.

It is a brutal introduction to management, though Lampard has credit in the bank after winning last season's Championship title.

Two of his four league opponents, Arsenal and Manchester City, were also about as tough as fixtures come.

Wednesday's 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat to Aston Villa means Coventry have now lost five of their first six matches in all competitions.

Victor Torp's free kick against Villa was Coventry's first goal since their 4-2 League Cup win over Plymouth Argyle in August, though their wait for a Premier League goal continues.

Sky Bet's market has cut Lampard from 14/1 to 3/1, joint favourite with Fulham's Arbeloa to leave first.

2026-27 Premier League sack race: Alvaro Arbeloa in a difficult Fulham transition

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Arbeloa replaced Marco Silva at a club that had established itself in the Premier League, and the start has been rough.

Fulham lost their first three matches before drawing 0-0 at Liverpool last weekend, ending a three-match losing run.

They followed that with a 3-2 Carabao Cup win over West Ham.

Their league record stands at 0-1-3, one point, in 18th place.

That is enough to put Arbeloa level with Lampard at 3/1 in Sky Bet's next-manager-to-leave market.

Manchester United visit Craven Cottage on Sunday, with Michael Carrick's side under similar pressure.

A Fulham win changes the conversation considerably, while another loss leaves Arbeloa with one point from five games heading into the break.

2026-27 Premier League sack race: A different kind of pressure for Michael Carrick

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United have four points from four games: a loss at Hull, a win over Ipswich, a 2-2 draw at Everton and a 1-0 derby defeat to Manchester City.

That record would concern most clubs, and at United it counts as a crisis.

City played more than an hour with 10 men after Phil Foden was sent off for kicking out at Bruno Fernandes, yet still won through Erling Haaland's disputed strike.

It got worse on Wednesday, when United led Brighton 2-0 inside 10 minutes in the Carabao Cup and then lost 3-2.

It was the first time in 50 years that United have blown a two-goal lead at home, going back to a 3-2 defeat to Tottenham in 1976.

Carrick took responsibility afterwards.

United's next league fixture is away to Fulham on Sunday.

His odds have shortened to 10/3, third-shortest in the market behind Lampard and Arbeloa.

2026-27 Premier League sack race: Roberto De Zerbi and Tottenham's goal drought

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Spurs have arguably the most extraordinary statistic of the season: four league games, zero goals.

De Zerbi's side have two points and sit 17th.

Their 0-0 draw with Everton on Saturday was a genuine landmark, the first time in the club's 144-year history that they have failed to score in each of their opening four league matches.

It was also their first-ever goalless draw at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The pressure is compounded by a summer outlay of more than £300m.

There is reason not to panic yet, though: every previous Premier League team to open a season scoreless through four games has gone on to avoid relegation.

One of them, Aston Villa, went on to finish fourth the following campaign.

De Zerbi's chance to change the story comes Saturday, when Tottenham host Aston Villa.

2026-27 Premier League sack race: Unai Emery should not be overlooked

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Villa's results read poorly: one point from four games, 19th place, and a goal difference of minus six.

They opened with a 4-0 loss at Brighton, then lost 1-0 at home to Arsenal, drew 0-0 at Hull and lost 1-2 at home to Nottingham Forest.

Context matters enormously here.

Emery led Villa to fourth place last season and, in May, to the Europa League title.

That was a 3-0 win over Freiburg in the final, Villa's first major trophy in 30 years and a record-extending fifth European title for Emery personally.

The squad has also been reshaped by summer sales, including the departures of Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins, Youri Tielemans, Ezri Konsa and Emiliano Martinez.

Their form in Europe has been far better, including a 3-2 win away at Club Brugge in the Champions League days before the Forest defeat.

Emery is priced at 12/1 to leave first, reflecting the gap between his situation and the others above him.

Saturday's trip to Tottenham, with both sides still searching for a first win, will tell us more.

2026-27 Premier League sack race: Why the next week matters

Several of the under-pressure managers face each other before the break.

Tottenham host Aston Villa on Saturday, Nottingham Forest host Coventry, and Manchester United travel to Fulham on Sunday.

A win could buy any of them breathing room, while another defeat leaves a club facing hard questions during the international window.

Bookmakers have Lampard and Arbeloa as joint favourites to be the first manager out, with Carrick, De Zerbi and Sage next and Emery further back.

None of this is a guarantee, since betting markets reflect sentiment rather than boardroom decisions.

The next 90 minutes for each of these five could shift the picture considerably.

By Sunday evening, one of these managers could have secured the result needed to quiet the noise.

Another could be heading into the international break with an increasingly uncomfortable question hanging over his future.

The 2026/27 Premier League sack race has started and the first managerial casualty may not be far away.