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.