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Southampton suffered the earliest relegation in Premier League history after a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham, as Saints remain on course for the lowest-ever points tally in the competition.
Brennan Johnson’s first-half double and Mathys Tel’s stoppage-time penalty, after Mateus Fernandes’ 90th-minute goal, saw Southampton relegated with seven games left to play – surpassing the previous record of six matches – for an immediate return to the Championship.
But the south coast club’s nightmare season could get even worse with Ivan Juric’s 10-point side still a point from equalling the lowest-ever tally in a Premier League season, which is held by Derby County, who managed 11 in 2007/08.
Asked about beating Derby’s record, Juric said at his post-match press conference: “It’s our goal to avoid being the worst team in Premier League history.”
A woeful Southampton provided the perfect opponent for Spurs to build some confidence and momentum ahead of Thursday’s pivotal Europa League quarter-final first-leg against Eintracht Frankfurt at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
James Maddison and Brennan Johnson starred in Spurs’ win
The win was also a welcome relief for under-pressure Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou as Spurs ended their four-game winless league run to move up to 13th in the table.
Before kick-off, hundreds of Tottenham fans protested outside the ground against the club’s ownership and chairman Daniel Levy – the second protest organised by the ‘Change For Tottenham’ group after a march in February ahead of the home game against Manchester United.
Some Tottenham fans protested against the club’s ownership before the game
But those supporters’ frustrations were temporarily put to one side as Johnson powered Spurs into a 13th-minute lead as he finished first time from Djed Spence’s cross.
A five-minute VAR check then denied Lucas Bergvall doubling the lead as Cristian Romero was ruled offside in the build-up, but, three minutes later, Johnson scored his second in the 42nd minute after some poor Saints defending that summed up their dismal season.
Southampton have suffered 25 league defeats so far this season
The travelling Saints fans had something to cheer about in the 90th minute as Fernandes hammered home from close range to give them hope of an unlikely comeback.
But that was quickly extinguished six minutes later as Wellington brought down Johnson inside the area and Tel converted the spot-kick to confirm Saints’ relegation with a 25th league defeat of the season.
The unwanted records Saints can break
Southampton’s miserable return to the Premier League has come to its inevitable conclusion.
The writing was on the wall for Southampton – and had been for some time.
They are the first team in Premier League history to be relegated with as many as seven games of the season remaining.
Southampton’s relegation back to the Championship was confirmed following their 3-1 defeat at Tottenham, their 25th league defeat.
Southampton were two down by half-time at Tottenham
The Saints are the third team to lose as many as 25 of their first 31 games of a top-flight campaign, after Sunderland in 2005-06 and Sheffield United in 2020-21 (both also 25).
It has been quite the contrast to last season, when a 22-match unbeaten run in the Championship helped aid their successful bid for promotion to the Premier League via a play-off final win over Leeds at Wembley. The harsh reality is that many are now talking about Southampton as one of the worst teams in Premier League history.
Juric believes ‘huge gap’ in physicality reason for Saints’ relegation
Southampton are returning to the Championship after just one season in the top flight
Southampton boss Ivan Juric speaking at his post-match press conference:
“What I noticed we missed the most in these three or four months that I’m here, [it’s a] completely different physicality between us and the other teams in the Premier League.
“I think the same thing has happened to Leicester and Ipswich.
“The difference between physicality in the Championship and the Premier League… the gap is huge.
“But you have to find, from now, from this moment, the players that can grow up, that can improve. Not just thinking about winning the Championship, but create the players that will be ready in the Premier League.”
Ange: We’re ready for a ‘big night’ on Thursday
Mathys Tel’s injury-time penalty sealed the win for Spurs
Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou speaking in his post-match press conference:
“I was really happy with the first half. I thought we were really disciplined, well organised, we sort of limited them to one chance.
“And I thought every time we went forward we looked dangerous, we looked threatening – it’s probably as threatening as we’ve looked for quite a while. Really fluent, obviously scored two goals, had one disallowed, Aaron (Ramsdale) pulled off some good saves.
“Really pleased but second half, not so much. I thought we became way too passive without the ball. We allowed Southampton to get a little bit of a rhythm and then really sloppy with the ball, and even the substitutions that we made didn’t really make the impact I wanted to, which allows them to get a goal at the end.
“So that was disappointing and something we need to improve on, but overall I think the important thing is we got the win, we scored three goals, everyone got through unscathed and ready for a big night Thursday.”
Story of the match in stats…
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