Southampton were relegated from the Premier League in record-setting time after a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday ended their brief stay in the top-flight.
Brennan Johnson struck twice in the first half and Mateus Fernandes’s late reply was too late to stop bottom of the table Southampton crashing back to the Championship.
Beaten for the 25th time in 31 games, Southampton are the first Premier League team to be relegated with seven matches still to play.
Ipswich and Derby were relegated with six games left in 1994-95 and 2007-08, respectively.
Ivan Juric’s side are also still one shy of matching Derby’s 2007-08 record low Premier League total points of 11.
Juric, whose team are without a win in their last seven league matches, admitted this week that avoiding the record low points tally is Southampton’s only target for the rest of their dismal season.
Southampton were pushed to the brink of relegation when fourth-bottom Wolves came from behind to beat Ipswich 2-1 on Saturday, leaving Saints 22 points from safety.
Their slide down to the second tier was confirmed 315 days after they clinched promotion by beating Leeds in the Championship play-off final at Wembley.
Russell Martin was architect of Southampton’s success in the Championship with an attacking approach, but his insistence on sticking to those tactics backfired badly in the top flight.
Martin was sacked in December after a 5-0 defeat against Tottenham left Southampton bottom of the table with just five points from 16 games.
Former Roma boss Juric was hired to replace Martin on an 18-month contract, but the Croatian was unable to save Southampton from going down with a whimper.
– No reprieve –
Tottenham have been in turmoil themselves for much of the season, with fan protests against chairman Daniel Ley before and during the game underlining the depth of the problems in north London.
But under-fire boss Ange Postecoglou, who was jeered by Tottenham fans during Thursday’s defeat at Chelsea, earned a little breathing space at Southampton’s expense.
Trying to avoid their lowest finish since 1993-94 — when they came 15th — Tottenham’s first win in five league games lifted them to 13th place.
It was a much-needed boost before their Europa League quarter-final first leg against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday.
Postecoglou’s men took the lead in the 13th minute when Johnson fired into the roof of the net from Djed Spence’s cut-back for his 15th goal in all competitions this season.
That spelt doom for Southampton, who haven’t won a single league game this season after conceding the opening goal.
Lucas Bergvall’s close-range finish was disallowed for offside after the kind of protracted VAR check that has driven Postecoglou to claim the system is “killing the game”.
It was only a temporary reprieve as Wales forward Johnson doubled Tottenham’s advantage with a composed finish from James Maddison’s header in the 42nd minute.
Despite their team’s predicament, Southampton fans packed into one corner of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hadn’t lost their sense of humour, chanting “Que sera, sera… we’re going to Coventry” as the clock ticked down on their stay in the top tier.
In a moment of quality at odds with their woeful campaign, Fernandes chested down and fired past Tottenham keeper Guglielmo Vicario in the 90th minute.
There was no late comeback as Wellington fouled Johnson and Mathys Tel converted the penalty to confirm Southampton’s demise.
AFP