Abdoulaye Doucoure scored a huge goal for Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday (Picture: Getty Images)
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.
It was essential that Everton won as anything less and they would have been down because Leicester picked up a 2-1 win over West Ham at the King Power.
Goals from Harvey Barnes and Wout Faes gave the Foxes three points, and there was a spell during which they were out of the bottom three as they led and Everton were held.
However, they knew their destiny was not in their own hands from the start and a win was not enough.
Leeds needed a miracle on Sunday and they didn’t come close to pulling one off, losing 4-1 at home to Tottenham to see them return to the Championship after an eventful season which saw Sam Allardyce take charge of the final four games.
It was a sorry end to a short spell at Leeds for Sam Allardyce (Picture: Getty Images)
Leicester and Leeds join Southampton in being relegated, with the Saints comfortably adrift at the bottom of the table but enjoying an amazing last game of the campaign at home to Liverpool.
With nothing really on the line for either side, they cut loose and the match finished 4-4 to at least give the St Mary’s crowd some entertainment after a forgettable season.
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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The Toffees have done just enough.
