Southampton Relegated From Premier League With Seven Games To Go

Southampton were relegated from the Premier League in record-setting time after a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday ended their brief stay in the top-flight. Brennan Johnson struck twice in the first half and Mateus Fernandes's late reply was too late to stop bottom of the table Southampton crashing back to the Championship. Beaten for the 25th time in 31 games, Southampton are the first Premier League team to be relegated with seven matches still to play. Ipswich and Derby were relegated with six games left in 1994-95 and 2007-08 respectively.

Ivan Juric's side are also still one shy of matching Derby's 2007-08 record low Premier League total points of 11.

Juric, whose team are without a win in their last seven league matches, admitted this week that avoiding the record low points tally is Southampton's only target for the rest of their dismal season.

"It's a difficult day, a tough day but I see the fans, how they love their players and their team. It's something incredible," Juric said.

"This experience has to serve to create something stronger than this. Now it is important to think about the next game and then we will see everything (about the future).

"I think we did very good in the second half. More intensity and technically we played better. I want to see that second half performance in the next seven games."

Southampton were pushed to the brink of relegation when fourth-bottom Wolves came from behind to beat Ipswich 2-1 on Saturday, leaving Saints 22 points from safety.

Their slide down to the second tier was confirmed 315 days after they clinched promotion by beating Leeds in the Championship play-off final at Wembley.

Russell Martin was architect of Southampton's success in the Championship with an attacking