Everton secures another last-day escape in the Premier League, extending their 69-year stay in England’s top flight. Meanwhile, Leicester suffers relegation from the Premier League just seven years after their spectacular title triumph. Everton’s French midfielder, Abdoulaye Doucoure, becomes the hero of the day, smashing home from the edge of the box on 57 minutes to secure a 1-0 victory against Bournemouth and spark jubilant celebrations around Goodison Park.
Leeds, on the other hand, confirms their relegation to the Championship after three seasons in the Premier League with a 4-1 defeat to Tottenham on Sunday. Despite Leicester’s 2-1 win over West Ham, it was too little too late for the talented squad that underperformed this season.
Everton began the afternoon in control of their fate but put their raucous support of 40,000 fans at Goodison Park through the mill before securing survival. Scoring goals has been a problem for Sean Dyche’s men, and they badly missed the presence of talismanic striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Even when they opened up the visitors, Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers produced a stunning save to deny Idrissa Gueye midway through the first half.
The Cherries upset the odds to secure survival weeks ago and refused to lie down and make life easy for the home side. Travers was a late replacement in the Bournemouth side after captain Neto missed out for personal reasons, and more heroics from the Irish goalkeeper prevented Demarai Gray from opening the scoring early in the second period.
Conceding first would likely have been fatal for Everton, who have not scored more than once at home since October. The relief 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 equalizer during ten minutes of added time.
Leicester did what they had to do 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 has an array of attacking weapons and 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 needed a favor from Bournemouth that never arrived.
Leeds required a series of results to go in their favor and never gave themselves a chance as Harry Kane opened the scoring after just two minutes at Elland Road. Pedro Porro doubled Spurs’ lead early in the second half, and Kane reached 30 Premier League goals for the season after Jack Harrison had pulled one back for Leeds. Lucas Moura rounded off the scoring with virtually his final kick of a five-year Tottenham career.
Victory for Spurs was not enough to secure a place in next season’s Europa Conference League as Aston Villa beat Brighton 2-1 to seal seventh. Manchester United climbed above Newcastle to finish third thanks to a 2-1 win over Fulham. The wildest game saw Southampton and Liverpool draw 4-4.