West Brom boss Tony Pulis feared the axe after Huddersfield defeat

The under-fire Baggies boss told members of his coaching staff straight after the match that he thought it could signal the end of his Albion tenure.

There were angry calls for Pulis’s head from a furious away end during the limp 1-0 defeat at the hands of David Wagner’s newly-promoted team.

But even though the Albion board are deeply concerned about results and performances, as well as the toxic scenes in the away end that day, they have not yet decided to swing the axe.

Pulis admitted that criticism had stepped up a notch at the John Smith’s Stadium and decided to de-stress from the situation by going ahead with a pre-planned holiday to Barbados with his wife Debbie this week for their anniversary.

Although it raised eyebrows among Albion fans, it is a trip he makes each year, and ten of Pulis’s senior players are currently out on international duty, making it difficult for him to prepare for the home game against Chelsea a week on Saturday.

That match with the champions has grown into a significant one for Pulis, and there will now be serious scrutiny on the team’s performance and the reaction to it in the stands.

Chinese owner Guochuan Lai will be in attendance, although he regularly attends matches against the big six and had been planning to come to the game since before Pulis’s job was under threat.

However, if things turn sour at The Hawthorns, Lai will be there to witness it first hand on a day when the Baggies could also slip into the bottom three.

Albion have not won any of their last 10 games in all competitions and have only picked up 12 points from their last 20 Premier League games from a run spanning two seasons.

There was a small amount of muted criticism at the last home game against league leaders Manchester City, which the Baggies lost 3-2, when the majority of fans recognised the superiority of the opponent.

But Saturday’s defeat to Huddersfield means Pulis is unlikely to be shown as much sympathy from the home fans during the Chelsea game should the team fail to meet their expectations.