Johnson double inspires Spurs win and sends Southampton down.
Spurs win just their second league home match in 2025 as Saints return to the Championship with seven matches to play.
Southampton’s relegation from the Premier League was confirmed following a 3-1 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Brennan Johnson scored twice at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, while Mathys Tel was also on target from the penalty spot to consign Ivan Juric’s side to an immediate return to the Championship.
Saints are the first side in Premier League history to be relegated with seven matches still to play.
Johnson did the damage with a first-half brace and, despite Mateus Fernandes halving the deficit, Tel’s stoppage-time spot-kick ended Spurs’ four-match winless league run.
Ange Postecoglou’s side, who had dropped to 16th place following Saturday’s results, climb to 14th, with Southampton remaining rooted to the foot of the table.
How the match unfolded
Both sides went close early on with Aaron Ramsdale beating away Cristian Romero‘s fierce header.
Pedro Porro deflected Kamaldeen Sulemana‘s volley onto the post at the other end before Spurs broke through in the 13th minute, when Johnson flashed a first-time shot home from Djed Spence‘s low cross.
Lucas Bergvall was denied a second goal for offside following a VAR review, but the hosts did double their advantage in the 42nd minute. Southampton failed to deal with a cross and James Maddison nodded the ball back into the area for Johnson to flick home.
Ramsdale got down well to keep out Dominic Solanke in the 65th minute, while Sulemana and Yukinari Sugawara’s deflected effort tested Guglielmo Vicario as the Saints launched a late rally.
Fernandes halved the deficit in the 90th minute when he neatly controlled Sulemana’s cross, before drilling past Vicario.
However, Welington felled Johnson deep into stoppage time, with Tel tucking away the spot-kick to seal Southampton’s fate.
Spurs stop the rot
Without a win in four Premier League matches, this is a fixture Spurs will have been thankful for – especially with the need to build momentum ahead of their UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday.
Spurs were unbeaten in their 14 previous league matches against sides starting the day at the bottom of the table, though they were given a scare when Sulemana’s volley deflected onto the post early on.
Nevertheless, the hosts were quickly into the ascendancy and edged their noses ahead when Johnson rounded off a swift counter.
Ramsdale bravely denied Romero while the VAR thwarted Bergvall, but the second goal never looked far away. It duly arrived via Johnson, and that effectively ended the contest.
Despite Southampton’s late surge that saw them grab a consolation, the victory was never really in doubt, even before Tel converted his penalty.
Spurs will have been favourites to prevail here but, nevertheless, it was an important win.
Indeed, attention now turns to Frankfurt on Thursday, and the hope of keeping alive their only realistic chance to secure European football next season.
Saints’ fate sealed
After 17th-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers came from behind to beat Ipswich Town on Saturday, this was Southampton’s date with destiny.
It was always going to be a tough ask, especially against a side with a point to prove.
Despite ending their six-match losing streak against Crystal Palace in midweek, a stoppage-time equaliser had denied them a rare win.
Having lost 18 of the 19 previous Premier League matches in which they had conceded the opening goal this season, the signs did not look good when Johnson fired Spurs in front.
The Saints faced an even bigger mountain to climb when Johnson scored again, though they did demonstrate some fighting spirit late on with Fernandes neatly finishing.
However, it proved yet another false dawn with Juric’s side conceding another stoppage-time goal, courtesy of Tel’s penalty.
Their return to the Premier League may have been brief, but Southampton’s focus will now be on ensuring they add at least another two points from their final seven matches to avoid recording the lowest tally in a season, which is currently held by Derby County (11 in 2007/08).
Club reports
Spurs report | Southampton report
What the managers said
Ange Postecoglou: “We performed well in the first half and we have got to make sure we do that for the full 90. [Johnson] was outstanding and he also earned the penalty. His general play was really good, not just his goals so really pleased for him. It was important we got a win today and everyone came through [unscathed] for Thursday.”
Ivan Juric: “It’s a difficult day, tough day but I see the fans, how they love their players and their team. It’s something incredible. This experience has to serve to create something stronger than this. I think we did very, very good in the second half. More intensity and technically we played better. Second half was good. First half we were too low, not high pressure and everything was difficult. I want to see that second half performance in the next seven games.”
Next PL fixtures
Key facts
Southampton are the first team in Premier League history to be relegated with as many as seven matches of the season remaining.
Johnson is the first Spurs player to score 15+ goals in all competitions in a season, other than Harry Kane or Son Heung-min, since Gareth Bale in 2020/21 (also 16).
Only Southampton (80 per cent) have won a greater proportion of their total Premier League points this season against teams currently in the bottom half than Spurs (78 per cent – 29/37), who picked up just their second win across their last 11 home league matches (D3 L6).
Having only been relegated two times in their first 45 seasons in the English top flight between 1966/67 and 2021/22 (1973/74 and 2004/05), Southampton have now been relegated in two successive Premier League campaigns (2022/23 and 2024/25).
