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Final day of 22/23 Premier League season: European places confirmed and two clubs relegated

It’s the final day of the 2022/23 Premier League season European places were confirmed and two clubs have been relegated.

Coming into this, we knew that the final two relegations spots were to be decided between Everton, Leeds and Leicester.

A win would keep Toffees up, while Leicester would survive if they won and Everton do not, while for Leeds to survive they needed a win, Everton to lose and for Leicester not to win, or to win by three goals if Everton draw.

Aston Villa would guarantee seventh and Europa Conference League place if they beat Brighton while Brentford could also take that spot if they win and Villa and Tottenham don’t.

So, below is how the day played out…

GOAL! Leeds 0-1 Tottenham (Kane, 2)
Pedro Porro was found wide right and just stayed onside. His ball inside found Son Heung-min, who worked it to Harry Kane for a typically ruthless finish.

Simon Stone (BBC Sport at Elland Road): “Leeds players got attracted to the ball meaning when Son squared the ball to Harry Kane, the Tottenham skipper was unmarked.

“You just cannot do that with players like him.

“Terrible defending.

“The Leeds fans responded by singing ‘Marcelo Bielsa’ in homage to the man who got them promoted and was sacked last season.”

GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Brighton (Luiz, 8)
Ramsey got into the box from the left and caught Luiz’s late run to the edge of the area from deep. The Brazilian met it perfectly, to place it into the far corner past Steele.

GOAL – Chelsea 0-1 Newcastle
Anthony Gordon (9 mins)

GOAL – Arsenal 1-0 Wolves
Granit Xhaka (11 mins)

GOAL – Southampton 0-1 Liverpool
Diogo Jota (10 mins)

GOAL – Arsenal 2-0 Wolves
Granit Xhaka (14 mins)

GOAL – Southampton 0-2 Liverpool
Roberto Firmino (14 mins)

GOAL – Southampton 1-2 Liverpool
James Ward-Prowse (19 mins)

GOAL RULED OUT – Aston Villa 1-1 Brighton – Deniz Undav (19 mins)
Julio Enciso with a beautiful cross with Undav there to nudge it in. Enciso was offside though.

GOAL – Man Utd 0-1 Fulham
Kenny Tete (19 mins)

GOAL – Aston Villa 2-0 Brighton – Ollie Watkins (26 mins)
A lovely goal as Villa won the ball back and one pass had Brighton open, Jacob Ramsey was in on goal but unselfishly knocked it square for Ollie Watkins to roll in.

GOAL – Arsenal 3-0 Wolves
Bukayo Saka

GOAL – Chelsea 1-1 Newcastle
Kieran Trippier (OG, 27 mins)

GOAL – Southampton 2-2 Liverpool
Kamaldeen Sulemana (28 mins)

GOAL – Crystal Palace 0-1 Nottingham Forest
Taiwo Awoniyi (31 mins)

GOAL – Leicester 1-0 West Ham – Harvey Barnes (34 mins)
Harvey Barnes played a wonderful one-two with Kelechi Iheanacho on the edge of the box and then slotted the ball past Lukasz Fabianski. Leicester SAFE.

DISALLOWED GOAL – Aston Villa 2-0 Brighton
For the second time, Deniz Undav had the ball in the net – but denied for being offside.

GOAL – Aston Villa 2-1 Brighton
Deniz Undav (39 mins)

GOAL – Man Utd 1-1 Fulham
Jadon Sancho (39 mins)

GOAL – Southampton 3-2 Liverpool
Kamaldeen Sulemana (48 mins)

GOAL – Leeds 0-2 Tottenham – Pedro Porro (47 mins)
Superb from Kane, flicking the ball over the head of Cooper, then charged forward through the middle of the pitch, finding Porro with a slight deflection off Struijk.

GOAL – Arsenal 4-0 Wolves
Gabriel Jesus (58 mins)

GOAL – Everton 1-0 Bournemouth (Doucoure, 57)
Goodison Park erupted after Doucoure smashed a sensational finish into the bottom corner.

Stephen Warnock (Former England and Liverpool defender on BBC Radio 5 Live): “What a strike from Abdoulaye Doucoure! The best player on the pitch, the player who has tried to make things happen. The ball falls to the edge of the box and he catches it like he will never catch a ball again. So sweetly into that far corner.

“Goodison Park has absolutely erupted. There are people with tears in their eyes, everyone is hugging each other. It is absolutely unbelievable!”

Eilidh Barbour (Presenter on Final Score): “This place has absolutely erupted. That was an absolutely brilliant strike. It flew straight as an arrow into the back of the net.

“That is exactly what Everton needed. As things stand they are staying in the Premier League.”

GOAL – Man Utd 2-1 Fulham
Bruno Fernandes (55 mins)

GOAL – Leicester 2-0 West Ham – Wout Faes (62 mins)
Leicester are doing their bit but they were still down. Wout Faes heads home from Youri Tielemans’ free-kick.

Kelly Somers (Final Score): “The life has been sucked out of the King Power now with news of the goal at Goodison. It briefly lifted with Wout Faes scoring the second goal – but now it’s the West Ham fans making all the noise.

“Not only taunting the Leicester fans about going down – ‘2-0 and you’re going down’ is the current chant of choice, but they’ve also been mocking Leicester’s goal music too. Who can blame them? They’re losing but will be in the Premier League next season AND they’re in a European cup final. Party time for them.”

GOAL – Southampton 4-2 Liverpool
Adam Armstrong (65 mins)

GOAL – Crystal Palace 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Will Hughes (66 mins)

GOAL – Leeds 1-2 Tottenham – Jack Harrison (67 mins)
Jack Harrison found space in the box to lash a shot across goal and inside the far corner.

GOAL – Southampton 4-3 Liverpool
Cody Gakpo (72 mins)

GOAL – Leeds 1-3 Tottenham – Harry Kane (69 mins)
Spurs break for an attack that ended with Harry Kane slotting in a typically ruthless finish.

GOAL – Southampton 4-4 Liverpool
Diogo Jota (73 mins)

GOAL – Arsenal 5-0 Wolves
Jakub Kiwior (79 mins)

GOAL – Leicester 2-1 West Ham – Pablo Fornals (79 mins)
Leicester’s lead halved. Pablo Fornals ran onto a ball down the wing, cut in and smashed his effort in via the inside of the post.

GOAL – Brentford 1-0 Man City
Ethan Pinnock (86 mins)

FULL TIME SCORES:

FT Arsenal (3) 5-0 (0) Wolverhampton Wanderers
FT Aston Villa (2) 2-1 (1) Brighton & Hove Albion
FT Brentford (0) 1-0 (0) Manchester City
FT Chelsea (1) 1-1 (1) Newcastle United
FT Crystal Palace (0) 1-1 (1) Nottingham Forest
FT Everton (0) 1-0 (0) AFC Bournemouth
FT Leeds United (0) 1-4 (1) Tottenham Hotspur
FT Leicester City (1) 2-1 (0) West Ham United
FT Manchester United (1) 2-1 (1) Fulham
FT Southampton (2) 4-4 (2) Liverpool

Midfielder Jacob Ramsey: “It’s unbelievable, when I woke up on my birthday this morning this is all I wanted. Two assists, three points and European football again.

“It’s tough to put a finger on what the manager has changed. We had talent in the squad but since he came in he has put his foot down and put pressure on us. They have brought in their own identity and style of play.”

Leicester captain Jonny Evans to Sky Sports: “Hard to take. We knew it would be a tough ask. We knew we had to win our game and hope something went for us. It didn’t.

“As the game went on we were asking the referee, asking the linesman [about the Everton score]. There were a few cheers but we didn’t know what they were about. We were trying to cope with that and focus on taking our game right to the end.

“It’s hard to put a finger on things. Everyone wants to blame things. As a club we haven’t been good enough. We’re out of the league.

“It’s a great club. I have no doubt it’ll bounce back.

“You have to earn the right. There’s so many good teams in this league. Everything has to go right for you. It’s a really competitive league. It’s tough. If you’re not on it, you get punished.

“After the first couple of months after a bad start it’s hard to turn it round. We got ourselves into a bad place and found it difficult to get out.

“It’s been difficult [with his injuries]. I feel a bit guilty. Maybe pushing it too much with the eagerness.

“You never know what way the club will see things. We will have to deal with the uncertainty. A lot of players are out of contract and I’d guess there will be a lot of changes at the club.”

Asked if he knows what his future is, he said “no.”

Everton’s matchwinner Abdoulaye Doucoure speaking to BBC Sport: “Yeah, thank you. It was a huge game for us. We are so happy. It’s hard to describe our feeling. We fought all season to compete and save the club. This afternoon we gave everything. It was not our best game but we gave everything and got the result.

“I’m always going for the second ball. I knew I had to strike it as hard as possible and hit the target. Thank god it went in. It was an amazing feeling.

“We knew after Jordan Pickford’s incident we knew there would be extra time. We were able to run more after the goal. It was long but we got the reward.”

On not getting too high: “Of course. Don’t get carried away. I’m not a hero. Nobody is here. We work and play for Everton football club. We have to be much better than that. We need to realise the mistakes we made this season. Everyone showed passion at the end but next season we need to come back stronger and put Everton high up.”

Leicester interim boss Dean Smith to BBC Sport: “We played well today and deserved the win. For 60 minutes we were really good. Pleased with that aspect but devastated for everyone in the club we couldn’t get over the line.

“I didn’t [follow the other game]. I felt it was irrelevant for me. I was concentrating on trying to win the game. From there we’d see what happens.

“The remit was always seven weeks and eight games and I felt we’d need 11 points. We fell short with nine. I’ll look back on the Leeds and Everton games where we lost points.

“People will have to look into the future and what the club does. There will be a review. I can’t comment on that. My remit was seven weeks and try to keep us in the Premier League and I failed on that.

“Everyone knows this club is built to be an elite level club. You get knocks in life buit your job is to bounce back. The place is set up for success. Unfortunately this has been a tough year. In the short time I’ve been here, [I think] they’ll bounce back.

“The beauty of it is they [fans] will continue to support their club. They’ll come back. Hopefully the club can be successful and bounce straight back. The fans would desevre that.”

On whether he will be stay at the club: “I have no idea. We haven’t even discussed it, talked about it, thought about it. The job was to come in, concentrate on each game – I couldn’t even tell you who was out of contract. Unfortunately I feel like I failed for the owner but it’s a long season.”

Leeds manager Sam Allardyce, speaking to BT Sport: “You prepare for a game, you get the players down and put some tactics in, looking at the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses and then play the game as best you can. But when you play how we do in a game in those moments and the errors are huge errors – Harry Kane is going to take full advantage, isn’t he?

“We messed up again, tried to fight back and messed up again in a big way. Our response to going 1-0 down was good but we couldn’t find the back of the net with the huge amount of attempts we had. Of 20-21, we had two on target. That tells you everything. Creating opportunities yes, but taking chances is very poor. At the other end, we switch off and Tottenham have better quality than we have.

“It says it all about Leeds this season. More goals conceded than anyone else. We’ve scored goals but without stopping the goals going in we couldn’t pick up the points. I wanted to go out with some pride today, but unfortunately I didn’t see that.

“You can preach to the players all you want, but most goals are conceded by losing the ball in your own half, by your own mistakes. We made critical errors and because of the quality of Tottenham they took full advantage.

“We get back in the game, score a really good goal and lift the crowd and within two minutes they score again. There are enough professionals out there to say ‘let’s not concede another goal’. That is not what we did. It is all about the basics. It is a pretty simple game.”

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery to MOTD: “I am very proud of the players’ work, I have been very demanding and they have responded very well. At Villa Park our supporters have been very necessary for our work, our project – they were here with us today supporting us.

“Everyone is very happy with this step. Today was our moment. We have an ambitious objective, we are trying to build a strong spirit and a structure. We have time to work more next year and we have one more competition to play, it is an another option for a trophy.

“I want it. I have played in Europe for 15 years and it is fantastic to have it.”

Leicester captain Jonny Evans to BBC Sport: “It’s difficult for the club and everyone involved. I have no doubt the club will bounce back. The Premier League is where everyone wants to be.

“We played well today but it doesn’t mean anything. We had to make sure we won our game and hope the other games went our way but they didn’t.

“It’s hard to know [why they struggled so much]. The bad start sticks in my mind. It’s not easy to turn around. It’s hard to win matches. We found it difficult to recover.

“For the last couple of months we said big game, big game every week. But at the end of the day it went down to the final minutes.”

On what decisions the club might make: “I don’t have the answer to that. I’m sure they have a lot of decisions to make. A lot of players are out of contract. There is a lot of talk of players moving on. When there’s a relegation that usually happens. There’s a lot of decisions for the club to make and I’m sure they’ll make the right ones.”

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