Leicester were relegated from the Premier League just seven years after a spectacular title triumph as Everton prolonged their 69-year stay in the English top flight by beating Bournemouth 1-0. Leeds will also return to the Championship after three seasons in the Premier League as their relegation was confirmed by a 4-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
Everton, always seen as the most likely among the three to avoid relegation, secured their Premier League status courtesy of Abdoulaye Doucoure’s spectacular 57th-minute goal. The strike ensured a 1-0 home win over Bournemouth and helped Everton avert their first relegation in nearly 70 years.
“There’s cracks here but it’s not broken and we’ve shown that. We’ve shown the fighting spirit,” said Everton manager Sean Dyche.
“We shouldn’t be in this position and we’ve got to learn from this.”
Scoring goals has been a problem for Dyche’s men and they badly missed the presence of talismanic striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Even when Everton did open up the visitors, Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers produced stunning saves to deny Idrissa Gueye and Demarai Gray either side of half-time.
Conceding first would likely have been fatal for the Toffees, who have not scored more than once at home since October.
The relief around Goodison was palpable when Doucoure’s sweet strike finally got the better of Travers.
Everton still had an anxious half hour to see out and Jordan Pickford had to make a fine save to deny Matias Vina an equaliser during 10 minutes of added time to get over the line.
Leicester did what they had to do on the day as the Foxes won for just the second time in 17 games.
But it was too little, too late for a talented squad that badly underperformed this season.
In contrast to Everton, Leicester have an array of attacking weapons and they showed the quality they possess with the opening goal as Harvey Barnes exchanged a one-two with Kelechi Iheanacho and slotted calmly into the far corner.
Wout Faes headed in Leicester’s second just after the hour, but by that point the home crowd at the King Power knew Everton led and they needed a favour from Bournemouth that never arrived.
“Every manager will think I could have done this or that but hindsight is a wonderful thing. You finish where you deserve to over a season,” said Leicester interim boss Dean Smith.
“Mine was a remit to come in for seven weeks and eight games and try to keep the club in the Premier League. Unfortunately I’ve fallen a little bit short.”
Leeds required a series of results to go in their favour and never gave themselves a chance as Harry Kane opened the scoring after just two minutes at Elland Road.
“It’s professional suicide,” said Leeds boss Sam Allardyce of his side’s start. “We made critical errors at the wrong period of time.”
On Saturday evening, Luton Town beat Coventry City in a penalty shootout to secure promotion to the Premier League, joining Burnley and Sheffield United in the top-flight next season.
Luton’s triumph marks a remarkable comeback journey for the club. They were relegated from the First Division in 1992 before plummeting as far as the Conference Premier (fifth tier of the English game) in 2009. After spending four seasons in non-league football, they returned to the Football League in 2014, and ascended to the Championship (second division) in 2019.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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