SHEFFIELD, May 20 — Tottenham Hotspur beat relegated Sheffield United 3-0to cement fifth place and qualify for the Europa Leagueafter a Dejan Kulusevski double and Pedro Porro rocket in their final Premier League game of the season at Bramall Lane on Sunday.
The result saw Spurs finish on 66 points, two points below fourth-placed Aston Villa, who had already claimed the final Champions League place, and three points above Chelsea.
“It was important we put in a decent performance today and won the game for a number of reasons. I thought the lads handled it pretty well,” Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou said.
“It’s always a bit difficult, the last game of the year, Sheffield United don’t have anything to play for. So it can be easy to not have the right mentality, but I thought for the most part we had that tonight,” added the Australian
After a nervy start, Spurs took the lead when Micky van de Ven won the ball and launched an attack, with Son Heung-min finding Swede Kulusevski who arrowed a low shot into the corner.
Tottenham doubled their lead just before the hour when Porro scored with a thunderbolt which gave goalkeeper Wes Foderingham no chance before Kulusevski grabbed his second six minutes later when he slotted home James Maddison’s cross.
Basement side United nearly went down to 10 men when midfielder Andre Brooks was shown a red card in the 76th minute for bringing down Son in the box before a set-piece but it was overturned by the referee following a VAR review.
The Blades, whose relegation was confirmed last month, finished the season with the worst defensive record in Premier League history after they conceded 104 goals in 38 games.
United finished bottom of the table with 16 points. — Reuters