Aston Villa have earned their return to the Premier League on Monday after having defeated Derby County 2-1 in the Championship Playoff Final at Wembley Stadium in London. The Villains return to the top flight for the first time since 2016, when they got relegated to the second tier. Last season Aston Villa also made it to the playoff final, but they were defeated by Fulham and missed out on promotion. Their return to the top flight also means the club would get an estimated 170 million pounds in windfall payments.
Anwar El Ghazi opened the scoring in the first half for Aston Villa and then John McGinn doubled their lead with 30 minutes left in the game, but Derby fought back and eventually reduced the deficit through Jack Marriott's goal. Aston Villa managed to hold out through seven minutes of injury time and earned a promotion that seemed quite unlikely a few months ago. They seemed out of the promotion race but they eventually finished fifth in the Championship after a club-record ten-match winning streak.
Aston Villa manager Dean Smith said after the game: "It feels right that Villa are in the Premier League. It is a Premier League club. History tells you that. We've done some hard years." The Villains have won 21 major trophies in their 145-year history, including an European one, but they have been in quite a bit of trouble lately.
It was a turbulent season for Aston Villa, it started with a change of ownership as Tony Xia sold the club to billionaire businessmen Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris in July and then manager Steve Bruce was sacked in October. That was probably the moment that changed everything, former Villa player Dean Smith was appointed as manager and he eventually led the team to that memorable ten-game winning streak that started at the beginning of March with a 4-0 victory over Derby at Villa Park.
The bookmakers are not very optimistic regarding Aston Villa's future in the Premier League, though, they are 5/2 at Bet365 to get relegated at the end of next season.
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