LEICESTER City’s nine-year stay in the Premier League came to an end as they were relegated in agonising fashion despite beating West Ham on the final day of the season.
The Foxes’ fate was out of their hands heading into the last round of fixtures, and Everton’s 1-0 victory over Bournemouth meant the 2015-16 winners slipped into the Championship by two points.
While Toffees fans were in ecstasy at Goodison Park, Leicester supporters at the King Power were left to rue a miserable campaign in which they won only nine league matches.
Knowing they needed a win to have any chance of staying up, Leicester went close early on when Kelechi Iheanacho exchanged passes with James Maddison before clipping the crossbar with a vicious, curling effort.
The hosts did break the deadlock through Harvey Barnes’ cool finish from Iheanacho’s pass to lead at half-time, and at that stage they were staying up on goal difference.
Jonny Evans almost headed into his own net in a nerve-jangling second half, but the stadium was silenced when word filtered through about Everton’s goal.
Said Benrahma struck a delightful curling effort against the post for the visitors, before Wout Faes headed in Leicester’s second goal.
Pablo Fornals pulled a goal back by stabbing in via the post as the Hammers finished 14th, six points clear of the relegation zone.
Leeds Relegated
Leeds United were also relegated from the Premier League as they lost their final game of the season to Tottenham.
Needing to beat Spurs at Elland Road while hoping other results went their way, Leeds trailed inside the opening two minutes through Harry Kane’s excellent finish.
Pedro Porro then doubled Tottenham’s lead when he fired in from a tight angle early in the second half.
Jack Harrison made it 2-1 to give Leeds brief hope of pulling off an unlikely escape, but Kane’s 30th league goal of the season restored Spurs’ two-goal advantage.
Lucas Moura added further gloss to the scoreline in stoppage time, jinking into the box and scoring a fourth goal for Tottenham.
Everton Stay Up
on an afternoon of nerve-shredding tension at Goodison Park.
Sean Dyche’s side knew victory would guarantee survival irrespective of events elsewhere, but for a time they were in the drop zone as they struggled to break down Bournemouth and Leicester City were beating West Ham United.
Everton finally ended the deadlock after 57 minutes as Abdoulaye Doucoure sparked an explosion of elation and relief inside an emotionally-charged Goodison Park with a powerful right-foot finish from 20 yards that gave Bournemouth keeper Mark Travers no chance of saving it.
As the tension mounted, Everton survived a couple of Bournemouth near misses and an agonising 10 minutes of stoppage time before they could confirm they would be extending their 69-year stay in English football’s top tier.