The 2025-26 Premier League season will be remembered as one of the most chaotic in the competition’s history. Nine managers lost their jobs, three clubs burned through more than one head coach, and Nottingham Forest managed to get through three in a single campaign. Guardiola departed. Slot was dismissed. Amorim was sacked. Chelsea went through two managers and still ended the season without a permanent appointment.
And yet, eight managers survived — all 20 games, all 38 matchdays, all the pressure, all the noise.
They are not all safe. In fact, in the Premier League’s current climate of owner impatience and structural turbulence, no one is. As the stakes increase with each passing season, so does the pressure for those in the dugout — and what made 2025-26 truly different from previous high-turnover campaigns was that three of the nine changes happened at clubs outside the relegation zone.
So who among the survivors goes into 2026-27 on a sun lounger, and who is already measuring the length of the trapdoor beneath them? Here is our ranking of the eight managers who made it through, ordered from the safest seat in English football to the hottest.
8. Mikel Arteta (Arsenal) — The Fortress With a Fault Line
In post since: December 2019 Contract expires: June 2027
Mikel Arteta is the Premier League’s longest-serving active manager heading into the new season. He has rebuilt Arsenal from the wreckage of the post-Wenger era, delivered the first FA Cup since 2020, and returned the club to Champions League football as a consistent presence rather than an occasional visitor.
Arteta’s three-year deal runs until June 2027, and both the Spaniard and the club are understood to be keen for him to extend his six-and-a-half-year stay at the Emirates. Fabrizio Romano has reported that Arsenal are planning to offer Arteta a new contract in the summer, with the hierarchy eager to reward his success.
The one question that follows Arteta everywhere is the Premier League title. Arsenal have had the look of champions for two seasons without delivering the final act. If that pattern continues into a third cycle, patience — even at a club that has shown remarkable stability — will not be infinite. Arteta himself acknowledged the pressure surrounding his extension, saying: “I think the manager has to earn the right to be here tomorrow.”
For now, though, Arteta’s position is as close to untouchable as the Premier League allows. Safest seat in the division.
Sack risk for 2026-27: 2/10
7. Unai Emery (Aston Villa) — Locked In and Looking Upward
In post since: November 2022 Contract expires: 2029 (five-year extension signed)
Unai Emery has done something remarkable at Villa Park. He inherited a club that had been grinding its way back into relevance and transformed it into a genuine European contender with attractive, structured football and a clear squad identity.
Emery signed a new five-year deal, saying at the time: “We are really excited to continue this journey with no limits to our dreams. I am very happy to take this step and the responsibility of leading this club.”
A manager locked in until 2029 with an owner who invested heavily to keep him is not a man who will be sacked over a poor October. Emery’s position is secure, his relationship with the Villa hierarchy is strong, and there is a clear vision aligned between coach and boardroom.
The only scenario where Emery’s position becomes complicated in 2026-27 is a dramatic regression in league position combined with early European exit. That looks unlikely given the continuity and quality he has built. His seat is comfortable.
Sack risk for 2026-27: 2/10
6. Fabian Hürzeler (Brighton) — The Brightest Young Manager in England
In post since: July 2024 Contract until: 2028
Fabian Hürzeler arrived at the Amex Stadium as the youngest head coach in Premier League history and proceeded to prove every sceptic wrong. At 31 years old when appointed, the German-American overdelivered on expectations in his debut season at elite level and gave Brighton further reason to believe their model of developing and backing progressive coaches pays dividends.
Brighton’s structure — a club that has functioned as a production line of both players and managers — is built around patience and process rather than knee-jerk reaction. The Seagulls’ approach to recruitment and management development has been one of the Premier League’s most admired models of recent years.
The one credible risk to Hürzeler’s tenure is not poor form — it is success. The bigger European clubs will come for him if he continues to develop at this rate, much as they did for Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi before him. From a sack perspective, however, Brighton’s boardroom is one of the most settled in the top flight.
Sack risk for 2026-27: 3/10
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5. Regis Le Bris (Sunderland) — The Surprise Package Under Different Rules
In post since: July 2024
Regis Le Bris became one of the stories of the 2025-26 season — the relatively unknown Frenchman who guided a promoted Sunderland side through their first top-flight campaign in years. Le Bris led the Black Cats back to the Premier League in dramatic fashion, overturning a deficit to beat Sheffield United in the playoff final at Wembley.
Newly promoted managers face a specific kind of pressure: the season always looks harder than expected, the squad always needs strengthening, and patience is thinner because expectations are lower and resources are tighter. If Sunderland struggle for extended periods in their second season — especially in the first half of the campaign — the calls for change will come quickly from a fanbase who have endured decades of disappointment.
Le Bris’s seat is not under threat today. But he is the manager on this list with the least structural protection — no long contract reported, less institutional capital built, and the most volatile set of circumstances. One bad start to 2026-27 could change everything.
Sack risk for 2026-27: 5/10
4. Keith Andrews (Brentford) — The Accidental Appointment Proving Its Worth
In post since: June 2025
Keith Andrews is the Premier League’s most unusual managerial story of the past 12 months. A former set-piece coach with the Republic of Ireland and a late-career addition to Brentford’s backroom staff, the 44-year-old Irishman was promoted internally to become head coach after Thomas Frank left for Tottenham, having joined Brentford’s coaching setup as a set-piece specialist just months earlier.
That Brentford chose to promote internally rather than pursue an established name speaks to the club’s identity. That Andrews navigated 2025-26 without losing the club’s competitive thread speaks to his ability. But navigating the Premier League’s third season in the current cycle — with a squad built for a previous manager’s system — will test him more rigorously.
Brentford are not a club with a history of patience with managers who lose the room, and Andrews enters 2026-27 without the deep-rooted goodwill that a multi-year tenure builds. A slow start or a significant run without wins could expose the limited institutional foundations beneath his feet.
Sack risk for 2026-27: 5/10
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3. Daniel Farke (Leeds United) — One More Year, One More Chance
In post since: July 2023 Contract status: Contracted to lead Leeds in 2026-27
Daniel Farke has been on the sack watch list before — and survived. It looked for a while as though Farke wouldn’t make 2026, let alone 2027, but the German looks a good bet to lead Leeds into another Premier League season.
Farke’s strength is that he delivers results when the pressure is most acute, and Leeds’ ownership group has shown a degree of patience that many Premier League clubs do not. His record of back-to-back promotion winners at Norwich and the steady rebuilding job at Elland Road has given him credit in the bank.
But Leeds are a club with enormous expectations and a fanbase that can turn quickly. The Premier League is considerably more demanding than the Championship, and a second season in the top flight — historically one of the hardest for newly established clubs — will tell us whether Farke’s tenure has genuine longevity at this level.
The job title is safe for now. The tenure’s extension beyond another difficult run is less certain. This is a manager who could thrive or find the walls closing in, depending entirely on how the opening months of 2026-27 unfold.
Sack risk for 2026-27: 5/10
2. David Moyes (Everton) — One Last Chance at Something to Prove
In post since: January 2025 Contract: Signed a two-and-a-half-year deal
David Moyes returned to Everton — a club that made his name, and one he left under difficult circumstances — tasked with stabilising a side in deep trouble. He succeeded in keeping them up, and the club rewarded him with a genuine contract rather than a short-term deal. Despite initial reports that Moyes would join on a six-month arrangement, he signed a two-and-a-half-year contract, with no regrets from either party.
The challenge for Moyes heading into 2026-27 is context. Everton are a club in transition — a stadium move looming, a squad that needs significant rebuilding, and a fanbase with limited patience after years of mid-table drift and near-misses with relegation. Moyes’ experience is undeniable, but his record at clubs outside the top six in his second spell era is one of solid survival rather than genuine progress.
If Everton finish 14th or 15th again in 2026-27, the conversations will start. This positively reeks of the Moyes-at-City situation — a respectable career, legitimate big-club experience, but a growing sense that the ceiling has been reached. That analysis, from Football365, is unconfirmed speculation and should be treated as editorial opinion, but it captures a mood around Everton that will only intensify if the club stagnates.
Moyes has earned the right to go again. But this may be his final opportunity to deliver something meaningful, and the pressure of that context will define his 2026-27.
Sack risk for 2026-27: 6/10
1. Eddie Howe (Newcastle) — The Highest-Profile Seat in the Division
In post since: November 2021 Contract status: Retained for 2026-27 after summer review
Eddie Howe enters the new season as the Premier League manager under the greatest pressure, with the widest gulf between what his employers expect and what 2025-26 delivered.
A difficult summer left Howe’s team unable to build on the previous season’s fifth-place finish. Alexander Isak departed for Liverpool, and the two players brought in as replacements fell short in different ways. A return of just 10 points from 13 league games between mid-January and late April saw Newcastle slip from fifth to 13th.
Newcastle’s hierarchy conducted a full end-of-season performance assessment, evaluating results both on and off the pitch. The summer review was as close to a formal evaluation as any Premier League manager has faced and kept their job. According to The Athletic, Newcastle are expected to retain Howe, with the club and ownership aligned on keeping him heading into 2026-27 — but the decision came after a period of genuine speculation about whether the Saudi-backed owners would seek a change.
The goodwill from Howe’s early years — the transformation from relegation candidates to Champions League qualification — is real but finite. Alan Shearer backed Howe to get another chance, saying: “He deserves the opportunity to go again and work with whoever they decide to bring in.” That endorsement matters at a club where Shearer’s voice carries weight.
But Howe himself acknowledged the structural problems behind last season’s collapse. “I think last summer as a whole was very, very difficult for us. We had no sporting director, no chief executive and that left a big hole for us,” Howe said ahead of the final-day fixture.
The conditions are now better. The support structure is more stable. But Newcastle’s owners have Champions League ambitions and long memories. If Howe cannot engineer a significant improvement in the table in 2026-27 — and if key players such as Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali are allowed to leave — the end-of-season review conversation will be far shorter and reach a different conclusion.
Sack risk for 2026-27: 7/10
What This Means
The Premier League’s managerial turnover problem is not slowing down. Despite only seven clubs changing coaches throughout 2025-26, there were 11 managerial alterations in total — the second-highest number in competition history. Ownership groups are acting faster, tolerating less, and treating the managerial position as an operational lever rather than a long-term relationship.
For the eight survivors, the summer represents both a reset and a reckoning. The managers with structural protection — Arteta’s extension talks, Emery’s five-year deal, Hürzeler’s aligned ambition at Brighton — go into 2026-27 with genuine foundations. The rest enter the new season knowing that the margin between a survivor and the next name on the sack list is often nothing more than three bad results and a board that has run out of patience.
The 2026-27 Premier League season starts against the backdrop of the biggest managerial reset in over a decade. Xabi Alonso arrives at Chelsea, Michael Carrick takes permanent charge at Manchester United, Marco Rose begins his Bournemouth tenure, and Roberto De Zerbi is preparing his first full season at Spurs. The competition for each other’s jobs has never been more ferocious.
What Happens Next
All eight managers on this list will be in their dugouts for the opening day of 2026-27. The question is how many of them will still be there for the last.
History suggests the answer is fewer than you think. In 2025-26, nine managers lost their jobs, and the season featured a record-challenging pace of change that no one predicted at the August kick-off. The same will be true this time.
Watch the early fixtures closely. Watch Newcastle’s start. Watch Everton’s first six games. Watch whether Le Bris’s Sunderland can stay competitive at the top end of the bottom half. The trapdoor never closes in the Premier League — it just waits.
FAQ
Which Premier League manager is most likely to be sacked first in 2026-27? Based on current evidence and reporting, Eddie Howe at Newcastle is the highest-profile manager heading into 2026-27 under genuine pressure. He survived a summer review but is doing so without the unconditional backing that longer-tenured managers enjoy. A poor start to the new season could accelerate change at St James’ Park.
How many Premier League managers survived the entire 2025-26 season? Eight managers who started the 2025-26 season in their posts remained in charge through the full campaign: Mikel Arteta (Arsenal), Unai Emery (Aston Villa), Fabian Hürzeler (Brighton), Keith Andrews (Brentford), David Moyes (Everton), Daniel Farke (Leeds), Regis Le Bris (Sunderland), and Eddie Howe (Newcastle).
How many managers were sacked in the Premier League in 2025-26? Nine managers lost their jobs during the 2025-26 Premier League season. Three clubs changed managers more than once during the campaign, with Nottingham Forest going through three separate head coaches.
Is Mikel Arteta safe at Arsenal for 2026-27? Arteta’s contract runs until June 2027, and both the manager and the club are understood to be working toward a new extension, according to Fabrizio Romano. His position is considered the most secure among all active Premier League managers.
Who is the longest-serving active Premier League manager going into 2026-27? Mikel Arteta, who has been in charge at Arsenal since December 2019, is the Premier League’s longest-serving active manager heading into the 2026-27 season following the departures of Pep Guardiola and Marco Silva.
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