Southampton relegated, Manchester United ignites push for Champions League qualification

Southampton’s relegation from the Premier League was sealed on Saturday while Manchester United rebounded from back-to-back losses to ignite its push for Champions League qualification.

After 11 years in England’s top division, Southampton is heading down to the Championship after a 2-0 loss to Fulham sealed its fate with two games to spare.

That leaves two more relegation spots to fill and two of the four teams in most danger — Leeds and Nottingham Forest — are showing fighting spirit to avoid the drop.

Leeds held third-place Newcastle to a 2-2 draw and is only a point from safety, while Forest also drew 2-2 at Chelsea to stay three points above the bottom three.

Newcastle is now only ahead on goal difference from Man United, which beat Wolverhampton 2-0 to recover from losses on the road to Brighton and West Ham that let Liverpool back in the race for a top-four finish.

Newcastle and Man United have 66 points, four more than fifth-place Liverpool, with all three teams having three games left. Liverpool visits next-to-last Leicester on Monday.

Tottenham dropped out of contention for Champions League qualification after a 2-1 loss at Aston Villa, which moved level on points with its beaten opponent. They are fighting for berths in the two minor European competitions — the Europa League and the Europa Conference League — with Brighton, which is two points further back in eighth place but has three games in hand.

Crystal Palace beat Bournemouth 2-0 in the other game.