Aston Villa were relegated from the Premier League after a 1-0 defeat away to Manchester United on this day in 2016.
Marcus Rashford’s goal in the thirty second minute sent Villa to promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time in 28 years.
Late in the match, Rudy Gestede hit the post with a volley, but the inevitable couldn’t be delayed.
It was Villa’s ninth successive defeat and twenty fourth of the season in a disastrous season.
They finished with just three wins and 17 points, half the gap on Nineteenth-placed Norwich and 22 points off safety.
Villa, winners of the European Cup in 1982, have played in the Premier League since its inception and in the top flight since 1988.
However, the 2015-16 season quickly became a horror show they usually found themselves at the bottom of the table from early November.
Manager Remi Garde left last month and Villa headed to Old Trafford under the leadership of caretaker manager Eric Black, who never had any real hope of turning things around as fans turned against the club’s American owner Randy Lerner.
At Old Trafford they were comfortably defeated by Louis van Gaal’s United team, who were in a fierce battle with neighbors City for fourth place and the Champions League, in which they ultimately finished second on goal difference.
Villa spent the next three seasons in the Championship before returning to the top flight in 2019 in the play-offs.
Credit : www.independent.co.uk
