Last weekend, Cardiff City failed to rub further salt into the wounds of West Ham United and their manager Sam Allardyce as they went down to a 2-0 home defeat to the Hammers.
The East London club went into the game having won just one game from their last ten. Beaten 6-0 by Manchester City in the League Cup, and 5-0 to Championship side Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup, bookmakers widely expected the Bluebirds, complete with new manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, to heap further misery on the away side.
It was not to be, however, as Carlton Cole and Mark Noble found the net to ensure that West Ham left the Cardiff City Stadium with a much needed three points.
Even so, Allardyce remains the bookmakers’ favourite to be the next Premiership manager to lose his job. ‘Big Sam’ is odds-on with some bookies to be the next gaffer to be dismissed, with Norwich City’s Chris Hughton and Aston Villa’s Paul Lambert being his nearest challengers in a table nobody wants to top.
Solskjaer is at much longer odds, but Cardiff have found themselves at the centre of some managerial upheaval themselves in recent weeks. Former manager Malky Mackay was controversially sacked by club owner Vincent Tan on December 27, leading some City fans to carry out banner printing in support of their departed boss before the home game against Sunderland.
Cardiff have slipped into the bottom three, but still have more than a fighting chance of survival, being level on points with the Hammers.
