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Two of England’s oldest and grandest football clubs, Leeds United and Leicester City, have been relegated from the Premier League on a dramatic final day of action.
Everton won at home 1-0 over Bournemouth to extend their stay in the top flight into its seventh decade, a win that doomed Leeds and Leicester regardless of their results.
Leeds needed to win, but were thrashed at home by Tottenham, while Leicester – who left Socceroo Harry Souttar as an unused sub – did their part in defeating West Ham United 2-1, but were sent down by Abdoulaye Doucure’s second half goal.
The final European place went to Aston Villa, with their victory over Brighton good enough to cancel out Spurs’ win at Leeds.
Elsewhere, treble-chasing champions Manchester City suffered a final-day 1-0 defeat at the hands of Brentford.
Defender Ethan Pinnock celebrated signing a new four-year contract earlier in the day by scoring an 85th-minute winner to snatch a 1-0 victory for the Bees.
With the title long since sewn up, Pep Guardiola rested some of his big hitters ahead of next weekend’s FA Cup final, and a potentially historic Champions League showpiece seven days later.
With Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish missing completely and Erling Haaland left on the bench, it was a scratch City side and those established stars who did play, like Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez, had little impact.
Brentford still had something to play for, by contrast, as they were in with a slim chance of qualifying for the Europa Conference League before wins for Tottenham and Aston Villa ultimately scuppered their hopes.
Their players applauded the champions onto the pitch, but that was as far as the respect stretched.
Defeat meant City did not break the 90-point mark for a record fourth time in the EPL, which will irritate Guardiola, but if they win their next two matches – at Wembley and in Istanbul – even the perfectionist will have forgotten that.
Granit Xhaka marked his farewell appearance for second place Arsenal with a brace to help the Premier League runners-up finish their fine campaign with a 5-0 thrashing of Wolves.
Dutch coach Erik ten Hag secured a third-place finish for Manchester United after a 2-1 win against Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.
He has already led United to triumph in the League Cup and could add to that when his side faces Manchester City in the FA Cup final next week.
Champions League qualification had already been assured after Thursday’s 4-1 win against Chelsea, but United needed another victory to be certain of finishing above fourth placed Newcastle.
The wildest game saw Southampton and Liverpool draw 4-4.
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