Aston Villa have been a leading English club since the 1880s, renowned for their short and quick combination passes under the leadership of Scotsman George Ramsay, who was appointed the world's first professional football manager in 1886.
The club was influential in the sport's transition to professionalism in 1885.
George Ramsay's trophies of six league championships and six FA Cups made Aston Villa the most successful club in England, a position they held from the 1890s to the 1970s.
Villa scored 128 goals in the 1930–31 season, which remains the top division's all-time record, however the club's first decline began in the mid-1930s;
The 1940s and 50s were generally a period of mediocrity, followed by a sharp decline in the 1960s, culminating in Doug Ellis's takeover of the club in 1968 and Villa's first and only relegation to the third tier of English football in 1969–
70.
Villa returned to the elite in the mid-1970s under manager Ron Saunders, who led the club to their seventh top-flight title in the 1980–81 season.
They became only the fourth English club to win the European Cup in the 1981–82 season, followed by the European Super Cup in 1982.
Aston Villa was a founding member of the Premier League in 1992, one of three clubs that were founding members of both the Football League and the Premier League.
The club qualified regularly for European football in the 1990s, but after a period in which the club struggled to compete with the high spending levels of leading clubs, Doug Ellis sold his stake in the club to American billionaire Randy Lerner, whose ownership
The club ended with Villa's first and only relegation from the Premier League in the 2015–16 season.
The club returned to the Premier League in 2019.
During their history, Villa have spent 110 seasons in the top flight, the second most of any club, and have produced 76 England caps, also the second most of any club.
Aston Villa are currently ranked 5th in England's all-time league table since its inception in 1888 and are the seventh most successful club in English football based on competition results.