Leicester relegated regardless of win over West Ham

Leicester City’s nine-year keep within the Premier League got here to an finish as they have been relegated in agonising trend regardless of beating West Ham on the ultimate day of the season.

While Toffees followers have been in ecstasy at Goodison Park, Leicester supporters on the King Power have been left to rue a depressing marketing campaign by which they received solely 9 league matches.

Interim boss Dean Smith stated it was a “massive disappointment”.

“I can only look at my seven weeks and eight games,” he stated. “I always felt coming in it was going to be tough. The confidence and belief was low.

“I felt we would wish 11 factors to remain up, it turned out to be 11 however we solely received 9. In that regard, I’ve failed.”

Knowing they needed a win to have any chance of staying up, Leicester went close early on when Kelechi Iheanacho exchanged passes with James Maddison before clipping the crossbar with a vicious, curling effort.

The hosts did break the deadlock through Harvey Barnes’ cool finish from Iheanacho’s pass to lead at half-time, and at that stage they were staying up on goal difference.

Jonny Evans almost headed into his own net in a nerve-jangling second half, but the stadium was silenced when word filtered through about Everton scoring.

Said Benrahma struck a delightful curling effort against the post for the visitors, before Wout Faes headed in Leicester’s second goal.

Pablo Fornals pulled a goal back by stabbing in via the post as the Hammers finished 14th, six points clear of the relegation zone.

Champions League to Championship

Leicester’s game finished before Everton’s, which meant the Foxes players had to wait on the pitch for confirmation to come through that they were relegated.

Some huddled around defender Victor Kristiansen’s phone, but any glimmer of hope was extinguished when the full-time whistle blew at Goodison.

Many of the crowd jeered, but some did afford their players a generous ovation when they applauded the fans before heading down the tunnel and out of the top flight.

Leicester have been the architects of their own downfall, ending a wretched season with just three wins from their final 17 games and keeping just one clean sheet since November.

Smith’s mandate when he was appointed in April was to preserve the status of a side that were shock champions only seven years ago, but nine points from his eight games in charge was simply not enough.

And that means relegation to the Championship just six years after they reached the Champions League quarter-finals.

Smith said he would speak to chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha in the next couple of days.

“The effort and time he places in to the soccer is there to see,” he said. “I’m not desirous about my future in the meanwhile. It is uncooked getting relegated and I’ll go and replicate on it.

“The raw materials are of an elite club. It feels raw, it hurts, but with the infrastructure it will bounce back. You have to improve on the things that let you down and I have no doubts the players will.”

Barnes’ pleasant end and a 1-0 half-time lead gave the Foxes optimism they could simply keep alive.

But after Everton took the lead by Abdoulaye Doucoure’s sensible strike, Faes’ objective mattered little as Bournemouth couldn’t discover a manner by.

Leicester supporters did get away into cheers on a lot of events as information unfold of a Cherries ‘equaliser’ – however every time it was a false daybreak.

A summer season of upheaval follows for the Foxes, with Maddison and Barnes essentially the most sellable belongings, and 7 gamers and supervisor Smith out of contract.

Hammers seeking to European remaining

West Ham supporters have been in superb voice all through the sport, figuring out Premier League soccer was safe for an additional 12 months, they usually have a European remaining to stay up for.

As information of the scoreline from Goodison got here by, they taunted the house crowd with chants of ‘You’re taking place’.

Their group have been second greatest for a lot of the competition, with Fornals netting a comfort and skipper Declan Rice probably that includes in his final league sport for the membership.

This was their twentieth league defeat of the season, however their focus was already on Prague, the place they face Italian facet Fiorentina within the Europa Conference League remaining on 7 June.

Victory would give them their first main trophy since they lifted the 1980 FA Cup.

Manager David Moyes stated: “Getting to European finals don’t come around too often for lots of top, British clubs.

“Manchester City are within the largest one however the competitors we earned being in, we received ourselves into the ultimate of.”

• Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before – here’s all the pieces it’s essential to know to be sure to by no means miss a second