Steven Gerrard admitted he is concerned about getting the sack after Aston Villa's 2-1 defeat to Arsenal on Wednesday night.
Arsenal were victorious at the Emirates thanks to goals from Brazil internationals Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli. Gerrard's side did equalise through Douglas Luiz, but they couldn't hold on to avoid a third consecutive defeat in the Premier League.
The result leaves Villa 19th in the table after picking up just three points this term. They've now lost to Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, West Ham and Arsenal, with their only Premier League win coming at home to Everton. They've also defeated Bolton in the EFL Cup.
"Of course I do," Gerrard told BT Sport when asked about the possibility of losing his job. "I am really honest and critical of myself. If I stood here and said I wasn't concerned I think you'd look at me as though I was from a different planet."
Much was expected of Gerrard after Villa chiefs backed him in the transfer market. He's brought in Lucas Digne, Kerr Smith, Calum Chambers, Phillippe Coutinho, Diego Carlos, Robin Olsen and Boubacar Kamara since his appointment last November.
Gerrard will be under even more scrutiny if Villa lose their next game. Worryingly for the Liverpool legend, Villa's next opponents are Premier League champions Manchester City - who put six past Nottingham Forest on Wednesday. City's star striker Erling Haaland has nine goals in five Premier League games since his summer move from Borussia Dortmund.
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Gerrard has already received the vote of confidence from his players. "It has nothing to do with the manager," insisted Villa captain John McGinn. "Players are put out to do jobs and if we don’t perform those jobs it is our responsibility. Arsenal were in a similar position last season and stuck with it and got it right."
Analysing Villa's performance against Arsenal, Gerrard said: "We worked ever so hard to stay in the game and stay with Arsenal. I think technically they were a level above for 45 minutes. Because of our technical level we kept giving the ball back.
"We improved a lot second half and had some really interesting breakaways. Douglas provides a bit of magic to get us back in the game. Again we concede two goals because we didn’t get the detail of our defending right.
"Of course the keeper [Emiliano Martínez] could have done a bit better for us for the second one but he kept us in the game for large parts of it as well. At the moment we a struggling to keep clean sheets and we need to get back to basics."
McGinn added: "A bit of naivety. We were standoffish in the first half. Douglas scored a great goal and we were right back in it and then we make the same mistakes over and over again and we were punished.
"It is about us as players taking responsibility and being more streetwise. We need to start getting results and we are all aware of it."
