Leeds United and Leicester City have been relegated from the English Premier League as Everton staged a final day escape act to preserve their lucrative top flight status.
The Foxes and Leeds both began the day in the bottom three along with already gone Southampton, tied on 31 points going into the game with the Toffees two ahead and their destiny in their own hands. All three had home advantage with the Blues at home to Bournemouth, Leicester hosting West ham and Leeds entertaining Tottenham at Elland Road.
All three had changed manager during the the campaign in a bid to beat the drop. Sean Dyche knew a victory would render results elsewhere irrelevant and his mission would be complete. With a better goal difference than both of his rivals, Dean Smith needed three points and hope Everton lost or drew to make it out of the danger zone. Sam Allardyce was requiring both to draw at best while Leeds won, although only needed a four goal swing to finish above Everton if his side prevailed and the Scousers drew.
In the end, it was Everton who did what they needed to do, but nerves were frayed at Goodison Park. Harvey Barnes put Leicester 1-0 up against the Hammers with the game on Mersey goalless. At that point, the hosts were heading down on goal difference. But Abdoulaye Doucoure's second half strike took the roof off Goodison and put them back in the driving seat for survival. Waes Fout doubled Leciester's lead but they knew it mattered little if Bournemouth didn't level.
Leeds were always the outside bet to pull it off. They found themselves 2-0 down to Spurs early in the second half. Jack Harrison offered some hope when he pulled one back, but that was extinguished when Harry Kane made it 3-1, bagging his second goal after Pedro Porro had earlier made it 2-0.
Pablo Fornals halved the deficit at the King Power to bring West ham back into the game. But it mattered little as the score remained the same in Liverpool after TEN minutes of added time sending the East Midlands club down. Things got even worse for Leeds as Lucas Moura piled on the misery to make it 4-1 Tottenham in stoppage time.
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