Premier League: Aston Villa sack Paul Lambert

Paul Lambert has parted company with Aston Villa

Paul Lambert has tonight been sacked as the manager of Aston Villa with the club sitting 18th in the Premier League table...

The former Livingston, Wycombe, Colchester, and Norwich boss had been at Villa Park since the summer of 2012, but following a run of just two league wins since September the midlands club decided to act.

A club statement tonight read:

"Aston Villa Football Club has parted company this evening with manager Paul Lambert.

"First-team coach Scott Marshall and goalkeeping coach Andy Marshall will continue to prepare the squad for Sunday's FA Cup tie with Leicester City at Villa Park.

"The club would also like to place on record its thanks to Paul and take this opportunity to wish him every success in the future.

"The club will announce a new manager in due course."

Despite a terrific start to the season which saw Villa take 10 points from their opening four games, Lambert's men finally fell into the relegation zone following last night's 2-0 loss at struggling Hull, the seventh league game from the last eight played that Villa had failed to find the back of the net.

And it seems that scoring goals was the major problem for Lambert's side, Villa scoring just 12 league goals all season, by some distance the lowest tally by any professional club in English football.

Assuming a new manager is in place by the time Villa play their next league game against Stoke in 10 days time, he will have 13 matches to save the club's season.

Aston Villa can be backed at 2.77/4 in the Relegation market behind Leicester and Burnley, both at 1.384/11, and QPR at 2.0421/20.

Tim Sherwood - who today was ruled out of the running for the vacant QPR job - immediately tops the list in Betfair's Next Aston Villa market, with the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann, Neil Lennon, and Harry Redknapp also being mentioned.