Roberto Di Matteo is already fighting to save his job, with the Aston Villa manager facing the prospect of the sack unless he can win one of his next two matches. Villa travel to Barnsley on Tuesday night then Preston North End on Saturday and failure to pick up a win in either of those fixtures may lead to the Italian’s dismissal, less than four months after he was appointed.
Villa, who were relegated from the Premier League last season, now languish in 17th place in the Championship after winning one of their opening nine matches, leaving the Midlands club well off the pace and prompting growing concern within the club that Di Matteo can turn things around and mount a promotion challenge.
Aaron Tshibola’s late goal salvaged a point at home against Newcastle United on Saturday, with Di Matteo speaking afterwards about the importance of turning draws into victories to climb the table. The 46-year-old will be given the opportunity to do that but only for so long, with the club’s board frustrated after envisaging that Villa would be around the play-off positions at this stage.
Tony Xia, Villa’s Chinese owner, is hugely ambitious. He sanctioned more than £50m of spending in the summer and told the Guardian in May that it was his hope to secure an immediate return to the Premier League as he embarked on an extensive revamp at the club.
Di Matteo, who guided West Bromwich Albion to promotion to the top flight in 2010, was given a two-year contract in June with that objective in mind and spoke at the time about “looking forward to the challenge of taking Aston Villa back to its rightful place”, yet patience is wearing thin after a hugely disappointing start to the season.
The former Chelsea and Schalke manager’s only win since taking over as manager was against Rotherham more than six weeks ago. Villa have drawn six of their past seven matches and despite spending heavily on bolstering their attack, scored only nine goals in as many Championship fixtures. Something needs to change at Barnsley or Preston for Di Matteo to buy himself some time.
