Los Rojiblancos are currently eighth in the Primer Liga table but have had a dismal run of results with three straight defeats including a 6-1 humiliation at Barcelona and travel to last season's runners-up Villarreal eager to halt the slide.

However, Cerezo has handed a vote of confidence to his coach who has been in the hotseat at the Vicente Calderon since 2006.

"I can guarantee and I do guarantee that whatever happens at Villarreal, Javier Aguirre will continue as coach of Atletico Madrid," he said. "To talk at this moment of sacking the coach is a very big and completely unrealistic notion, we haven't even thought about it.

"We want to finish in the top three in La Liga. Losing against Villarreal would be a tough blow because we'd fall off the group at the head, but we're still in the eighth week and there are still lots of matches to be played."

He added: "Furthermore, I don't want to complain, but we've also had bad luck with injuries - which undoubtedly has happened to many teams, but perhaps it's affected us a little bit more.

"In any case, I think that if we play well against Villarreal we can earn the three points that we really need and remain in the calmest area of the table."

Atletico will be boosted by their midweek Champions League exertions where a late Simao Sabrosa strike salvaged a 1-1 draw with Liverpool.

Los Rojiblancos could have even won the match as they had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside but will nevertheless be happy with a point and to be joint-top with Liverpool, and Cerezo believes they can now push on a get back to winning ways domestically.

"We knew the game against Liverpool would be difficult," he said. "In the end we could have even won and the fact that we didn't win was because of circumstances that everyone knows.

"But we got a good result for the Champions League table and now we have to focus on the league, against Villarreal and Mallorca."

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Cerezo was reluctant to comment on the news that Atletico physiotherapist Sebastian Truyols had been sacked for asking Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas for his shirt following Los Rojiblancos' derby-day defeat.

"I don't want to make any comment, it's a club employee and the club decided to suspend his services. I don't have anything more to say," he said.

"But the truth is that I don't have any idea [whether he should have been sacked] but it seems strange that they should sack someone from the squad or a club because of a shirt.

"If so then they should have sacked me also because I did the same last season."

Truyols himself admits he was in the wrong but believes all of it was simply an excuse to get rid of him.

"It's incredible what has happened," he told El Confidencial. "I am very hurt. They have thrown me out after six years of completely devoting myself to Atletico.

"It was all just an excuse. I'm going through a very bad time.

"It was rash of me to ask him on the pitch, I should have waited until the spirits following the defeat had calmed down."

ends