West Ham manager Sam Allardyce believes Manchester City would be wrong to sack Manuel Pellegrini at the end of the season and believes successfully defending the Premier League title is one of the hardest jobs in football.
Pellegrini has seen his future come under the spotlight following a run of six defeats in the last eight. That run of poor form has seen them first crash out of the Champions League to Barcelona and then fall off the pace in the Premier League as a 4-2 defeat at Manchester United left them battling to stay in the top four.
Allardyce, though, believes the Chilean coach deserves more faith for his achievements of just one season ago, but will do his utmost to get the better of City in their game on Sunday.
Asked if he thought City would be wrong to sack Pellegrini, Allardyce said: "I do. We are more volatile than ever before.
"If he has proven himself last year, in his first year, then maybe the owners will stick with him and revamp the squad rather than change the manager -- maybe that's the way forward for them. Who knows?"
Allardyce added: "The hardest thing to do in the game of football is to win the title back-to-back.
"It is hard enough winning it in the first place, but going back-to-back is more difficult. That is what I gained from a lot of the conversations I had with Sir Alex Ferguson over the years regarding motivation of the squad. The hardest part of the job is the season after success. To try to do back-to-back titles in a very difficult league.
"City won it fair and square last year and found it hard to raise themselves to that level again consistently."
Allardyce, 60, has seen his own position remain uncertain, with his current contract set to expire in the summer.
Asked if he was surprised to see so many candidates touted for his job, the Irons boss said: "No, because we have no contract. There is always speculation when that is a fact.
"We know what that situation is and it will get resolved one way or another at the end of the season.
"It will always bring up speculation. It's a good job to have isn't it? Especially going into a new (Olympic) stadium."
Despite his respect for the work done by Pellegrini, Allardyce, though, would love a repeat of the 2-1 victory over City at Upton Park in October, when the Irons were flying high in the table themselves.
"My concern is to make it difficult for them on Sunday and continue trying to win a football match," he said.
"We were at our very best the last time we played them and beat them. It was a hugely difficult performance, a brilliant performance, but difficult to win."