For the first time in 13 years, Aston Villa will compete in Europe next season after ending the Premier League campaign with a 2-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion.
As a result, Unai Emery's men will compete in the Europa Conference League playoff round next season, having sewn up seventh place in the league table.
The win completes a remarkable turnaround for a club who were in relegation danger before the Spaniard took charge, sitting 16th in October before Steven Gerrard was sacked.
Villa's Player of the Season Douglas Luiz and their top goalscorer Ollie Watkins each netted before the match was 30 minutes old, as the Lions captured a seventh successive Premier League home triumph, equalling the club record set during the 1992-93 season.
For Watkins it was his 15th goal of the season, with the Englishman becoming the first Villa player to reach that mark since Christian Benteke a decade ago.
The Lions made the perfect start as Luiz put them in front after eight minutes, finishing off a brilliant run by Jacob Ramsey for his sixth of the campaign, but none more important than that one.
The Villans took a 2-0 lead through Watkins on 26 minutes, catching the visitors out in transition as John McGinn dispossessed Alexis Mac Allister, feeding Leon Bailey with a brilliant ball over the top before the Jamaican found Watkins for an easy tap-in.
The Seagulls were denied an equaliser shortly after going behind 1-0 when a magnificent ball from Julio Enciso, who had got free down the left, was finished off by Deniz Undav.
Upon further review, though, Enciso was judged to have been offside, and the goal was chalked off, a massive relief to the home side, who had been caught out on the play.
Undav would get his goal on 38 minutes to give the visitors some hope as he narrowly beat the offside trap, latching on to a Pascal Gross free kick to calmly slot his effort past Emiliano Martinez with VAR this time confirming he was onside.
The second half was lively with chances for both sides as Ramsey missed an open goal, Mac Allister narrowly misfired a volley, while Ramsey nearly set up Watkins for a brace but his cross was just out of reach.
With Brentford upsetting Manchester City 1-0 and Tottenham defeating Leeds United 4-1, Villa needed to secure all three points in order to claim a place in Europe.
Although they finished the campaign in defeat, Brighton set a club record for points (62) and goals in a top-flight season (71).
It is the first time that Villa have finished in the top 10 of the Premier League table since the 2010-11 campaign, when they were ninth.
Joel Lefevre
