English Premier League kicks off with thrilling action: Weekend 1 overview
With new players, coaches and newly appointed captains from respective clubs, let’s analyse the matches that happened this opening English Premier League weekend.
English Premier League side West Ham United on Monday announced it has sacked coach Slaven Bilic.
“It is with disappointment and heavy heart that we have made the decision to relieve Slaven Bilic of his duties as West Ham United manager,” the East London club said in a statement, reports Xinhua news agency.
“During the summer, the board invested heavily signing the players Slaven believed would complete the squad he needed to push the club back towards the level we had reached in his first season, and we believe we have the players capable of doing that.
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“Sadly, performances and results have not been of the expected standard and, in recent weeks, we have not seen enough indication of the required improvement to give us the encouragement that things would change and we would meet our Premier League aspirations this season,” it added.
Bilic’s last game in charge was Saturday’s 1-4 defeat by Liverpool at London Stadium, which left West Ham in the relegation zone with nine points from 11 games.
West Ham said Bilic’s coaching assistants Nikola Jurcevic, Edin Terzic, Julian Dicks and Miljenko Rak have also left the club with immediate effect.
Former Croatia defender Bilic, 49, was appointed in the summer of 2015 and guided West Ham to seventh place in his first season in charge and 11th last term.
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