Southampton have been relegated from the Premier League after losing 2-0 to Fulham on Saturday afternoon. The club needed a win to have any chance of avoiding relegation, but second-half goals from Carlos Vinicius and Aleksandar Mitrovic in his first outing since serving an eight-game ban, shattered their hope.
Fulham took the lead in the 48th minute when Vinicius scored after Harrison Reed’s sliding challenge on Lyanco deflected the ball across goal. Mitrovic came on as a second-half substitute for Fulham, and just six minutes after his introduction, the Serbia striker met Harry Wilson’s cross to compound Southampton’s despair.
This marks the end of Southampton's 11-year run in the Premier League, which included four successive top-eight finishes under the likes of Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman. The club was widely admired for their setup and ability to develop young talent, which the top clubs would often poach.
When Southampton were last relegated from the Premier League in 2004/05, it took them seven years to win promotion back to the top flight. They will now play in the Championship for the first time since 2012, a foregone conclusion after their failure to beat Nottingham Forest last weekend. Meanwhile, Fulham's seventh away win of the Premier League season moves them up to ninth in the table and on track for a first top-half finish since 2012.