Manchester United 1-0 Aston Villa

Aston Villa’s dismal season finally came to a long anticipated climax after their relegation into the Championship was confirmed following defeat by Manchester United

A solitary goal in the 32nd minute by Marcus Rashford was enough to condemn the Villans to their fate for the first time since 1987.

A fine cross-field ball by Wayne Rooney released Antonio Valencia on the right hand side and the Ecuador international fired a low cross into the near post where Manchester born Rashford deftly tucked the ball under Villa ‘keeper Brad Guzan.

Another sell-out crowd at Old Trafford expected their side to push on and punish the Premiership’s poorest side but the team in red instead sat back and rarely threatened Guzan’s goal. In fact it was the visitors who almost punished United’s lack of ambition.  With five minutes remaining, substitute Rudy Gestede struck the post from an Ashley Westwood corner.

Villa fans were in fine voice right up until the end but the atmosphere turned a little sour following the final whistle when the Villa players failed to walk over to the travelling supporters, a handful only making it over the halfway line.

Despite a 28 year stay in the top flight of English football and boasting one of the few teams to never have been relegated from the modern day Premier League, just three wins in 34 matches means that one of the founding members of the English football league will playing in the second tier next season. 

Villa caretaker manager Eric Black was adamant that Villa have what it takes to bounce back next season into the league. The Scot said: “There are players in there capable of playing in the Championship. People in certain places will make sure that Villa will come back, I'm confident of that.”

Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal admitted that despite winning the game, the overall performance of his team was well below standard, saying “we have three points and make some distance from Southampton and West Ham, so the three points are very important. I'm not too happy with the performance. We have to finish the games a lot earlier and today we didn't do that.”