Everton survive as Leicester and Leeds relegated on dramatic final day

Everton have survived on the final day of the Premier League season, with Leicester City and Leeds United suffering relegation to the Championship.

Sean Dyche’s side knew that a victory on Sunday afternoon would be enough to keep them in the top flight and that’s what they managed, beating Bournemouth 1-0 at Goodison Park.

It was a seriously nervy affair and not an entirely convincing win over the Cherries, who had nothing to play for having long since secured their own survival.

However, the performance is irrelevant and the win the only thing that matters for the Toffees, which was given to them by a fine Abdoulaye Doucoure strike on 57 minutes.

Bournemouth admirably fought hard when they had little to fight for, committed to spoiling the party, but Everton held on for the all-important three points.

Everton finished the season on 36 points, two clear of the relegation zone, with the victory over Bournemouth just their eighth of the campaign.

Toffees defender Conor Coady told Sky Sports: ‘It’s relief. This has become a bit of a thing now but we don’t want to make it a bit of a thing. It’s a lot of relief.

‘We need to not make this a common theme, this is the last two seasons now, but this club has to rise and has to get better now.’

How the final day of the season began

Going into the final day of the season, Everton had their fate in their own hands, knowing that a win over Bournemouth at Goodison Park would be enough to keep them in the top flight.

The Toffees were two points ahead of Leicester at the start of Sunday, with the Foxes having a significantly better goal difference, six superior to Everton.

This meant that if Everton failed to beat Bournemouth and Leicester beat West Ham at the King Power then the Foxes would stay up. Anything less than a win for them would have guaranteed relegation.

It was a long-shot from the start for Leeds as they knew they needed to beat Tottenham at Elland Road and hope that Everton and Leicester both failed to win.

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