Everton made another last-day escape in the Premier League to extend their 69-year stay in England’s top flight.
Everton beat Bournemouth 1-0 to extend their 69-year stay in England’s top flight, with Leicester City relegated from the Premier League just seven years after winning the title.
Leeds United are also set to return to the Championship after three seasons in the Premier League, with their 4-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday confirming their relegation.
Abdoulaye Doucoure was Everton’s hero as the French midfielder sparked jubilant celebrations around Goodison Park in Liverpool, England, when he scored from the edge of the box in the 57th minute.
In contrast, Leicester City were downcast as they went down despite beating West Ham 2-1.
Everton began to take control of their fortunes in the afternoon, but couldn’t secure their survival to the raucous support of 40,000 fans through the mill at Goodison Park.
Goals have been an issue for Sean Dyche’s side, who have badly missed the presence of talisman striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Even if Everton did open the door for the visitors, Bournemouth keeper Mark Travers made a stunning save midway through the first half to stop Idrissa Gueye.
The Cherries broke the odds of securing survival a few weeks ago and refused to lie down to make life easy for the home team.
Marcos Senesi’s shot missed by inches before Yerry Mina needed a desperate last-ditch effort to stop Dominic Solanke’s effort on target.
With Travers on the bench for Bournemouth following the absence of captain Neto for personal reasons, more heroism from the Ireland goalkeeper prevented De Mallegrene from opening the scoring early in the second period.
Conceding the first goal could be fatal for Everton, who have scored just once at home since October.
There was a sigh of relief when Doucoure’s sweet strike finally beat Travers.
Everton still have an anxious half an hour. Jordan Pickford had to make a superb save 10 minutes into stoppage time to prevent Mathias Wiener from leveling.
Leicester did what they had to do as the Foxes won for the second time in 17 games.
But it was too little, too late for a talented team that has struggled this season.
Unlike Everton, Leicester have a range of attacking weapons and they showed their quality in the opening game, as Harvey Barnes exchanged a two with Kelechi Iheanacho and calmly into the far corner.
Wout Faes went ahead with Leicester’s second goal an hour later, but by then the home crowd at the King Power Stadium knew Everton were ahead and needed help from Bournemouth, which never came.
Leeds needed a series of results in their favour, and never gave themselves a chance as Harry Kane opened the scoring just two minutes later at Elland Road.
Pedro Polo doubled Spurs’ lead early in the second half and Kane scored 30 Premier League goals this season after Jack Harrison pulled one back for Leeds.
Lucas Moura almost scored with the final kick of his five-year career at Tottenham.
Aston Villa beat Brighton 2-1 to finish seventh, so a victory for Spurs would not be enough to secure a place in next season’s Europa League.
Manchester United overtook Newcastle for third place thanks to a 2-1 win over Fulham.
The craziest match was the 4-4 draw between Southampton and Liverpool.
