Will The Sacking Of Roberto Di Matteo Halt Aston Villa's Slide?

Will The Sacking Of Roberto Di Matteo Halt Aston Villa's Consistent Slide?

By Ewah Chika.

Having won promotion to the English Premier League with West Bromwich Albion in 2010, Roberto Di Matteo was not a shocking appointment by new Aston Villa owner Dr Tony Xia in the summer. In another way, one could argue Di Matteo's appointment was a step-down for the 46-year-old who won the FA Cup and  Champions League with Chelsea in 2012 but critically looking at the present situation, the Italian has not done much to improve his rating and career since his sacking by Roman Abramovich the same year.

At Villa, Di Matteo signed nine new players with two of them captains of Premier League clubs : Mile Jerdinak (Crystal Palace) and Tommy Elphick (Bournemouth) in addition to the likes of Jonathan Adomah, Aaron Tshibola, James Chester and Ross McCormack spending an excess of £50 million in the process which is very high for a Championship side.

Fast forward to October and the Italian's sacking was made official having been in charge for barely 124 days gaining ten points from 11 games (one win in 12 league games) with Villa languishing in 19th position in the league table. One major consistent problem during the time of the Italian is Villa's inability to wrap up games they dominate, conceding late goals in the 85th, 86th, 87th, 88th and 89th minutes, dropping nine points in total against the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield, Nottingham Forrest, Brentford and Barnsley. Discounting those dropped points, Di Matteo and Villa would have been positioned 7th in the league which is one point  behind rivals Birmingham City (one place behind play-off position).

At certain times, Di Matteo's decision did not help matters as he displayed naivety substituting injured striker McCormack at half-time for defender Jordan Amavi with Villa leading before the equaliser by Brentford.

Another problem is the pathetic performances of the new signings with Jerdinak playing poorly, goalkeeper Peluigi Gollini making costly mistakes and McCormack struggling with injuries.

While the sacking of Di Matteo might seem right, it should be noted that he needed more time to revamp the ailing side who have struggled since the resignation of Martin O'Neil in 2011. Since then Villa have struggled with relegation having Christian Benteke to thank for scoring vital goals that saved them. It is pathetic to know that Villa are yet to win a league game since December 7, 2014 after going a goal behind. The problem in Villa goes beyond the sacking of Di Matteo judging from their form of last season which saw them pick only 17 league points in 38 games. This year, Villa have only three times coupled with their inability to win an away game since August.  The departure of more than 17 players this season did not also help matters as Di Matteo had to build from the scratch. In total six permanent and four caretaker managers have been appointed and sacked in the last six years, dropping from a regular top six club to perennial relegation strugglers.

Owner Xia, might have added to this problem due to his constant interference with technical and tactical issues at the club which reached it's zenith a few weeks before the sacking of Di Matteo.

For now if nothing drastic is done, Aston Villa might soon turn a  to League One club considering their fall from grace to grass.