Southampton make Premier League history with early relegation as Saints' return to Championship is confirmed with Tottenham defeat

The Saints are the first team in the competition's history to have gone down with as many as seven matches still to play. They sit on just 10 points from 31 games, with two wins and four draws to show for a horrible campaign.

Relegation has appeared inevitable ever since Southampton lost seven of their first eight matches of the season under Russell Martin. They have since replaced Martin with Ivan Juric but never found any sort of form, becoming the first side to lose 25 of their first 31 games of an English top flight season and have now been relegated in successive Premier League campaigns. They are the first Premier League team to go down with seven games left to play.

The Saints still have work to do in order to avoid posting the lowest points tally in the league's history, currently sitting one point behind Derby County's tally of 11 from the 2007-08 season. They have seven matches from which to find two points.

Juric's side host Aston Villa next Saturday before a trip to West Ham the following weekend. They may see a trip to doomed Leicester on the first weekend of May as their best chance of winning another match.