Chris Davies facing increasing Birmingham City pressure - he has one saving grace over Xmas period | OneFootball

Birmingham City's patchy form is putting manager Chris Davis under pressure, but the Blues boss has one possible saving grace over the holiday period.

Birmingham City manager Chris Davies is under pressure again as his team's inconsistent start to the season continues, but the Blues boss has one thing in his favour, as his team heads into the Christmas period.

With a 3-0 reversal at Sheffield United marking a fourth straight game without a win, pressure is starting to build under the Birmingham City manager Chris Davies. Goals from Tyler Bindon, Gus Hamer and Patrick Bamford sealed a comfortable win for the Blades, while the 18th-minute sending off of Tommy Doyle made a difficult task all but impossible for Birmingham.

Birmingham remain in play-off contention, but there is a clear feeling that the Second City side have underperformed back in the Championship so far this season. With outspoken ambitions of competing for a return to the Premier League, which were reflected in the club's summer spending spree, Blues have scarcely looked capable of challenging in the promotion reckoning and a failure to do so could cost Davies his job.

As per a report from Football Insider, City's top-brass have been drawing up a list of potential replacements for Davies, who is now reportedly fighting for his job at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

But the Blues manager does have one thing going for him which strengthens his position, especially with the games that his team has coming up over the Christmas and New Year period, although it'll be essential for his survival as their manager that Birmingham are successful in these games.

Home form could be the key to lifting the pressure on Chris Davies at Birmingham

The biggest issue that Birmingham City have had this season has been their away form. A quick look at the home and away tables in the Championship is very revealing. On away results only, the Blues are in 21st place in the table, with only Sheffield Wednesday, Watford and Portsmouth below them.

But on home form only, it's a completely different matter. The Blues are 6th in this particular table, and they've played two fewer home games than three of the clubs above them. The only team to have beaten Birmingham at St Andrew's in the League so far this season has been Hull City, who won 3-2 there in October.

It's no coincidence that three of their last four matches have been away from home. The one point that Birmingham took from them came with a 1-1 draw against Charlton Athletic on the 13th December, while they lost all three away games.

Three home games in their next four give Birmingham an opportunity to get their season back on track

The Blues have an opportunity to apply some of their strong home form over the Christmas and New Year periods. Three of their next four games are at St Andrew's. They play Derby County there on Boxing Day and then Southampton three days later. Then, following a trip to Watford on New Year's Day, they entertain Coventry City in a lunchtime kick-off on the 4th January.

It is clearly important that Birmingham take something from these matches. And while the Coventry match will be the biggest test they've faced at home this season, the Derby and Southampton matches do look winnable.

Birmingham haven't played Derby that much in the last few years, but the Blues' record against them when they have met since the pandemic has been good. They are unbeaten in their last three games against them, with 2-0 and 2-1 wins against them in 2021 and a 2-2 draw in 2022.

The same cannot be said for their record against Southampton, though. Birmingham haven't beaten the Saints since a 2-1 win in the League Cup in 2009, and have failed to win any of their last five games against them since then. But that said, Southampton's revival under Tonda Eckert has stalled a little over their last two games, with a 2-1 defeat at Norwich and a 1-1 draw against Coventry, and they remain in mid-table themselves.

If Chris Davies' team can maintain their good home record for at least these two matches, the pressure on the Blues manager will surely lift. Davies still has some degree of credit in the bank for masterminding Birmingham's record-breaking 111-point haul in League One last season, and it's been clear that there has been a good working relationship between the manager and the ambitious owners of the club.

With the game at Sheffield United all but over as a contest by half-time and the team having shown few signs of improvement on their previous three performances, the pressure is definitely building under Chris Davies. But the next two games offer him a real saving grace; an opportunity to get the Blues' season back on track and reflect the ambition of the owners by pushing for a play-off place.