Brennan's brace sinks Saints

A first-half brace from Brennan Johnson and a late Mathys Tel penalty gave us a comfortable 3-1 victory over Southampton in the north London sunshine on Sunday afternoon.

And, while the win saw us pick up three points for the first time in six Premier League games, the result confirmed the Saints’ exit to the Championship, the earliest a team has ever been relegated from the Premier League.

Johnson gave us the lead with his 20th goal in our colours before netting again shortly before the interval – that was his 15th of this season – before Mateus Fernandes scored a 90th-minute strike to give Southampton a glimmer of hope of survival. That was extinguished deep into stoppage time though, when Tel converted a spot-kick after Johnson had been brought down to seal the win and give us the perfect lift ahead of Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final, first leg in N17 against Eintracht Frankfurt.

We were the dominant team for most of the game against a Southampton side which had collected just 10 points from their first 30 matches, and had early chances when Pedro Porro whipped in a corner which Cristian Romero met with a powerful header saved by Aaron Ramsdale on his goal-line before Lucas Bergvall played a one-two with Johnson but his weak shot was easy for Ramsdale.

At the other end, the visitors went close when Kamaldeen Sulemana’s back-post effort flicked off Pedro Porro and onto the post before we cleared and moments later we were ahead. Romero, James Maddison and Heung-Min Son – on his 450th Spurs appearance – combined to release Djed Spence down the left and his low cross was swept home left-footed by Johnson. Ramsdale denied us a second in the 26th minute with an unorthodox save, Romero’s diving back-post header hitting the Saints goalkeeper straight in the face while Bergvall had the ball in the net in the 33rd minute, however after a four-minute wait, VAR ruled it out after Romero was adjudged to have been offside in the process of setting him up.

We didn’t have to wait long to double our lead though, 42 minutes gone when Maddison headed into the box from the edge of the area and Johnson snuck in unmarked to poke the ball past Ramsdale. Five minutes into first-half stoppage time, Fernandes hit a low shot which Guglielmo Vicario comfortably saved.

The visitors started the second period on top, having a good spell of possession without testing Vicario before we hit them on the counter, Maddison with a glorious ball out wide left for Son, who broke into the box but saw his shot blocked by Jan Bednarek. There was little goalmouth action for a spell until the 65th minute when Dominic Solanke received a long pass, turned and hit a shot which Ramsdale saved well down low to his left, while Vicario made a good stop to deny Sulemana’s angled drive with 12 minutes remaining.

The intensity to the game drifted away in the closing stages although Solanke saw a couple more efforts blocked and Vicario thwarted Yukinari Sugawara before two late goals added some excitement. Southampton gave themselves a small hope of survival in the final minute of the 90 when Sulemana clipped over a deep cross which Fernandes controlled on his chest and swept home with a left-foot finish. They pushed for an equaliser which would have kept them in the division, but instead conceded again as Johnson was tripped by Welington in the area and Tel stepped up to slam home the penalty, opening his Premier League account. It was a goal which confirmed the win for us and relegation for the Saints.

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Johnson 13, 42, Tel 90+6 (pen); Southampton – Fernandes 90.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Pedro Porro; Saints – Ugochukwu.

Referee: Michael Salisbury.

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Weather: Sunny, gentle breeze, 15 degrees.

Attendance: 60,984.