Aston Villa Football Club (Aston Villa F.C.) is a football club based in Birmingham, central England. Founded in 1874, its home ground is Villa Park in Birmingham, and it currently competes in the English Premier League. Aston Villa is one of the oldest football clubs in England and a founding member of both the 1888 Football League First Division and the 1992 English Premier League.
Team History
In its early years, Aston Villa won the English top-flight league title seven times and the FA Cup seven times. Since the establishment of the Premier League, Villa has also finished in the top positions in several seasons. Though inconsistent, it remained one of the stronger teams outside the ""big four"" title contenders like Manchester United. However, as teams such as Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur strengthened their squads, coupled with many Villa star players moving to other clubs, the team’s league performance gradually declined. On May 28, 2019, three seasons after being relegated from the Premier League, Villa defeated Derby County 2-1 in the Championship play-offs to return to the Premier League. In August 2019, Xia Jiantong sold his remaining shares and bid a complete farewell to the club.
