This year marks Aston Villa’s 140th Anniversary, while there may be uncertainty in the air at Villa Park at the moment, over the next few weeks, MOMS thought we’d look at a few historical reasons for Villa fans to embrace the occasion. The first is a look at the amount of seasons clubs have participated in the English top flight league.
Out of 116 seasons (including the forthcoming one) only three teams have managed to notch up a ton. Of course, Villa are one of them. At the opposite end of the scale Swansea (6) and Hull City (4) both show that it’s possible to still make an impression in the top flight even if your history doesn’t suggest its your right to be there. Likewise, while it may seem odd to newer generations of football fans to see Burnley in the Premier League this term, they have history to back their status up.
Interestingly, the table actually suggests there might be at least a little dose of tradition behind Manchester City and Chelsea’s recent successes on top of their limitless funds. Both teams are comfortably in the top 10 and with them and Spurs unlikely to suffer relegation anytime soon, it looks like West Brom in 11th place (two seasons behind both Chelsea and Spurs) won’t break the top 10 for a while… if ever!
One thing stands out from the below table though, if there’s one reason for Villa to avoid relegation in this season and the ones that follow, it’s simply to make sure the club stay ahead of Liverpool in one table at least! UTV
Seasons in Top Flight between 1888-89 to 2014-15 (116 Seasons)
 Top 10
 112 Everton*
 104 Aston Villa*
 100 Liverpool*
 98 Arsenal*
 90 Manchester United*
 86 Manchester City*
 84 Newcastle United*
 84 Sunderland*
 80 Chelsea*
 80 Tottenham Hotspur*
————- the rest————-
 78 West Bromwich Albion*
 73 Bolton Wanderers
 72 Blackburn Rovers
 66 Sheffield Wednesday
 65 Derby County
 63 Wolverhampton Wanderers
 60 Sheffield United
 60 Middlesbrough
 59 Stoke City*
 57 West Ham United*
 57 Birmingham City
 56 Nottingham Forest
 53 Burnley*
 50 Leeds United
 48 Leicester City*
 46 Preston North End
 38 Southampton*
 34 Coventry City
 33 Portsmouth
 30 Notts County
 30 Huddersfield Town
 28 Blackpool
 27 Ipswich Town
 26 Charlton Athletic
 25 Fulham
 24 Norwich City
 23 Queens Park Rangers*
 22 Bury
 16 Cardiff City
 16 Luton Town
 15 Crystal Palace*
 14 Wimbledon
 12 Oldham Athletic
 12 Grimsby Town
 12 Bradford City
  9 Bristol City
  8 Watford
  8 Wigan Athletic
  6 Swansea City*
  5 Brentford
  5 Accrington
  4 Brighton & Hove Albion
  4 Hull City*
  3 Oxford United
  3 Bradford Park Avenue
  3 Reading
  2 Darwen
  2 Millwall
  1 Swindon Town
  1 Northampton
  1 Leyton Orient
  1 Glossop North End
  1 Carlisle United
  1 Barnsley
* – denotes a current top flight team
The 22nd November 2014 fixture at Villa Park against Southampton marks the date of the 140th anniversary of the club.
In fact we don’t know that. I know it’s stated in “The Complete Record Book”, but this is only a surmise. It is far more likely (as ancient newspaper accounts refer to it) that it was in October 1874. Jack Hughes said March, 1874 for the founding of the club after 4 delegates went to see a rugby match to report back their recommendation on which ball game to go for. That was (said Jack Hughes) in late February, 1874.