Full-time fletch on managerial pressure

If you think about the bosses in question, two of them will not make the top four. Each manager's target is to play in the Champions League, but because there are six teams right in the running for those four places, two of these coaches are going to end the season knowing that they will not be in the elite European competition next term.

Petulant Pep

I was not expecting to see Pep Guardiola be so grumpy in interview with journalists when he came to the Premier League. 

We are seeing this because he was expecting his style and method to be successful straight away. He's thus facing the kind of problem he has never faced as a manager. All he has ever known is success; he managed arguably the greatest club side of our generation at Barcelona and then dominated domestically in Germany.

This is the first time that Guardiola has been on the outside looking in and the first time his managerial style has been questioned. He now has to deal with the fact that people are not looking at him as the greatest coach in the world, but a fallible individual. 

Wenger's woes

Arsene Wenger has been in the Premier League a long time, but he has never had a situation where it's as competitive as it is now and that’s why we saw his reaction in the match against Burnley.

It was crackers of him – any time a manager puts his hand on an official, he is overreacting. I get that these are passionate people in high-pressure situations, but when you're the manager of a football club with the experience he has got, you have got to be able to keep your cool.

Mardy Mourinho

Jose Mourinho feels that a lot of decisions have gone against his team this year and that explains his tetchiness.

By being the manager of Manchester United, you automatically have pressure on you. Yet the pressure that he is under at Manchester United is slightly different to what David Moyes and Louis van Gaal had because of his reputation and track record for immediate success.

Fear of failure

The one that seems to be keeping on an even keel is Mauricio Pochettino. There is pressure on the other top five coaches to win the league and because it is so long since Tottenham Hotspur won the title, there is the least pressure on him. He knows his side can win the league but nobody is going to batter him if Spurs fail to do so.

The pressure is higher on these guys than it has been on a lot of them before. They know that one one of them is going to finish fifth or sixth at one of the biggest clubs in the world on their CV and none of them wants that.