Another bottom-three team has parted ways with their manager with Ian Holloway leaving Crystal Palace “by mutual consent” following their crushing 4-1 home defeat to Fulham on Monday night.

Sadly that is the nature of professional football these days with managers under so much pressure to get results. It was only a few months ago that Holloway was a hero at the club after leading them to promotion through the play-offs.

Sunderland recently fired their manager Paolo Di Canio after he picked up just one point from five games.

Sunderland still have just that one point as the league campaign enters its quarter mark.

Gus Poyet, the new manager of the Black Cats, and whoever takes over at Selhurst Park, clearly have their work cut out trying to pull their teams to safety. At Palace a lot depends who is going to come in and take over the helm and whether they will be able to get them going.

Owners do overreact sometimes but we have to remember that it is their money and their spending and they have a right to say what it is they want for the club.

The nature of the business of football management suggests that one or two more could go before Christmas . . . and not necessarily from one of the clubs near the bottom of the table.

There is a lot of pressure in the job and most managers know that if you don’t win their job could be under threat. Sometimes you can see the pressure on the managers’ eyes, which is not a good thing but it comes with the job.

Managers know when they take the job, if they don’t win they won’t be in that job very long.

Norwich boss Chris Hughton is feeling the pressure too, with his team in the bottom three.

Hughton is also the only black manager in the Premier League and he has been the victim of online racial abuse twice in recent weeks, with the club threatening to impose a life ban on any fan found guilty of the offence.

Of the teams in the bottom three I think Norwich are going to be okay, but I’m not sure about Palace and Sunderland.

Still, it is early days yet and if one of the new managers comes in and rejuvenates their team, they might be able to pull the club out of the relegation zone.

You only need three or four wins on the trot . . . and everybody will be saying what a wonderful job the coach is doing.

The early results for the top teams have suggested to me that there could be five or six sides making a strong push to win the league — Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Man City and probably Tottenham. And you have to put Liverpool in there too because they have Suarez back and if they are able to hold onto him they will be in with a shout.

They are at home to West Brom today and their manager Steve Clarke has done a good job.

They beat Manchester United at Old Trafford for the first time in many years and many people may not remember that West Brom have beaten Liverpool in their last three league meetings, including their last two visits to Anfield.

Last year they thrashed Liverpool 3-0 at home and then 2-0 at Anfield so anything can happen, although it will be a tougher place to visit this time.

I will be a lot happier when my team, West Ham, get striker Andy Carroll back because he helps us tremendously. I hope Carlton Cole is fit, too, because we do need something up front for the away trip to Swansea.