Four games into the Women's Super League season, Aston Villa have made the first managerial change of the campaign. Natalia Arroyo was told on Monday evening that she had been sacked. The players found out on Tuesday morning. She had two years left on her contract.
Nobody at Villa is pretending this was about one result, though one result did bring it forward.
Sunday against Tottenham decided it
Villa have not won this season. Two draws, two defeats, and then a 4-0 defeat by Tottenham on Sunday that BBC Sport understands was the game that settled the matter internally. It was not simply the scoreline. Villa have looked open at the back all month and chaotic whenever they lose the ball, and against a Spurs side who have started brilliantly that combination was punished repeatedly.
The opening weekend had suggested something else entirely. A draw with Chelsea is a good result for anyone, and it bought Arroyo a few weeks of patience. What followed did not build on it. Villa play Newcastle in the Women's League Cup on Wednesday evening, which now becomes an awkward fixture for a squad told that morning their manager had gone.
Sorensen steps in from the boardroom side
Brian Sorensen, the former Everton manager who joined Villa as women's technical advisor, takes interim charge. It is an unusual arrangement in that the person who was meant to oversee the football operation is now running the team, and it suggests Villa want someone who already knows the squad rather than an outside appointment made in a rush.
Arroyo arrived in January 2025 with Villa flirting with relegation and steadied them in her first six months. That is the part of her record the club were happy with. The problem was what came after: a season of investment in the transfer market that produced inconsistency rather than a clear identity, and an underwhelming finish that raised expectations for 2026-27 without evidence that they would be met.
The first of the season, not the first of the year
Arroyo becomes the first WSL manager to be sacked this season, though she is not the first to leave a job in 2026. Marc Skinner stepped down at Manchester United earlier in the year and Dario Vidosic did the same at Brighton. Those were resignations. This was a decision taken upstairs, and taken quickly.
She played for Barcelona and Spain before retiring in 2009, and moved into coaching from there. Whoever Villa appoint permanently inherits a squad with real money spent on it and a defence that has conceded heavily in four league games. That is a fixable problem, but only for someone given longer than four matches to fix it.
Club context: Natalia Arroyo joined Aston Villa in January 2025 and had two years remaining on her contract. Villa's 2026-27 WSL record under her: played 4, drawn 2, lost 2, including a 4-0 defeat by Tottenham on Sunday 27 September. Brian Sorensen, previously Everton manager and currently Villa's women's technical advisor, takes interim charge. Villa play Newcastle in the Women's League Cup on Wednesday, 19:30 BST.
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