Well, few of us anticipated no points from four games for the Irons. There's a real danger WHU could lose the next three games against Everton, Chelsea and Man United and end up having lost the first seven games of the season — as Crystal Palace did last season, although they did stay up after changing managers and appointing Roy Hodgson. Now the Daily Mirror has published the first article suggesting manager Manuel Pellegrini's position might be under threat if this continues.
It's not a time to panic as yet. The international break comes at a good time. A few years ago Pellegrini was signing Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling for Man City and he's had success at Villareal, Manchester City and Real Madrid. He can't suddenly be a bad manager. The new signings were always going to take time to fit together and adapt to a new league. Which is not to say that the lack of energy and skill against Wolves wasn't extremely worrying. It made many people realise that David Moyes had done an underrated job at a chaotic club last season.
The Lanzini injury looks an even bigger blow now. Jack Wilshere is playing too far back and should be the man with an eye for a pass to Arnie and Hernandez. Or perhaps we should play a couple of holding midfielders in Obiang and Sanchez or Noble, giving a base for Anderson to be the main midfield creator behind Arnie? Felipe looked tired against Wolves and was ineffectual out wide.
There was some hope in the decent performances of Balbuena and Diop on Saturday. But Pellegrini has to make some decisions. Is Wilshere ever going to be the player he once was? Is Robert Snodgrass one of those players who looks good in the Championship but doesn't do much in the Premier League? Will Antonio ever be fully fit? Do we need the experience of Zabaleta? With so many centre backs should he try five at the back and let Masuaku go forward? And above all he has to find a way of getting the players to put in much more of a shift and raise the home crowd.
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