Leeds United's three season stay in the Premier League ended with little more than a whimper as Tottenham cruised to a 4-1 win at Elland Road.
2022/2023 Premier League
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Match Report
Sam Allardyce wasn't able to pull off another Harry Houdini escape act as Harry Kane netted twice either side of Pedro Porro's goal.
Leeds were guilty of starting slowly in both halves, conceding to Kane within a couple of minutes of the start and Porro shortly after the restart.
Although Jack Harrison reduced the arrears midway through the second-half, Kane added his second moments later. Lucas Moura sealed a handsome win late on.
With Everton beating Bournemouth, a Leeds win would have been academic in any case as they slipped back into the Championship.
Spurs got off to the perfect start when Harry Kane fired them into a second-minute lead, converting from 12 yards out after running on to Heung-min Son's square pass. The goal was the 350th of Kane's senior career.
Robin Koch and Rodrigo both headed wide the pick of Leeds' chances in the first half, and they were made to pay for it before some home fans had even returned to their seats after the interval.
Kane turned provider this time, flicking the ball over Liam Cooper before feeding Pedro Porro on the right, who shot low and hard and into the bottom left corner.
Leeds were offered a glimmer of hope when Jack Harrison reduced the deficit for Leeds in the 67th minute, firing a low angled shot into the far corner to make it 2-1.
But moments after scoring, Kane got his second of the game after combining again well with Porro on the counter and netting his 280th goal for Spurs.
And late substitute Lucas Moura, who leaves Tottenham at the end of his contract this summer, scored a wonderful solo goal to sign off from Spurs in fairytale style.
Leeds end the season 19th in the table. Aston Villa's victory over Brighton meant Spurs finished in eighth place, missing out on a place in next season's Europa Conference League.
Leeds season verdict
Sky Sports' David Richardson:
Leeds escaped on the final day of last season but this time relegation felt inevitable - a four-manager campaign often does that.
Jesse Marsch was celebrating this time last year, Marcelo Bielsa's successor dramatically keeping the club up after a 12-game rescue mission.
A £140m summer spending spree, reinvesting the £100m raised from the sales of Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips, to bring in nine new players raised expectations that this season would be different. A further £45.5m in January on four more additions was another statement of intent, but Marsch was unable to mould his new-look side into a winning one.
He was sacked in February with the club above the bottom three only on goal difference, with their last victory coming in November. Marsch tried to implement a similar style to his teams at Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig but he simply failed to fix Leeds' leaky defence.
Michael Skubala, the club's U21 head coach, had a forgettable three-game spell while Leeds scrambled for a replacement, settling on Javi Gracia. Results improved initially until Crystal Palace left Elland Road with a crushing 5-1 victory and Leeds never recovered from there.
Director of football Victor Orta was axed the day before Leeds hit the panic button and sacked Gracia for Sam Allardyce with four games remaining. Allardyce claimed in his first press conference he is "just as good" as Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta, but four winless games later and Leeds' fate was sealed.
Taking only nine points away from home all season showed a lack of versatility and grit to grind out results. Key players like Patrick Bamford and Rodrigo were either injured or misfiring. Talent such as Wilfried Gnonto was underused.
Bielsa's legacy is the club being back in the Championship where he found them.
Tottenham season verdict
Sky Sports' Nick Wright:
Having clinched Champions League qualification ahead of Arsenal in May and opened the new campaign with a thumping 4-1 win over Southampton in August, few could have predicted quite how spectacularly Tottenham's season would unravel.
Spurs sat level on points with Manchester City at the top of the table in mid-September, the outlook seemingly bright, but a 3-1 reverse at the Emirates Stadium prompted a run which included seven losses in 12 Premier League games and they never really recovered.
Antonio Conte appeared increasingly detached and downbeat in the dugout and the situation came to a head when, having recovered from surgery to remove his gall bladder in March, he launched an extraordinary attack on his players after a late collapse against Southampton.
By that point, Tottenham had already lost all hope of silverware, crashing out of the FA Cup against second-tier Sheffield United, then exiting the Champions League with a lifeless performance at home to AC Milan in the second leg of their last-16 tie a week later.
Conte left under a cloud, only for the club to name his assistant Cristian Stellini as interim boss. It felt like another misstep and so it proved, the 49-year-old axed after a dismal 6-1 loss to Newcastle in which Spurs conceded five goals inside the first 21 minutes.
Still, though, there was no permanent appointment, with the popular but underqualified Ryan Mason next to step into the breach and Tottenham's dismal form continuing, despite the best efforts of Harry Kane, who somehow plundered 28 Premier League goals as his team-mates floundered.
Most supporters will just feel relieved that a nightmarish campaign is finally over but, with the club seemingly no closer to naming their next manager, and with Kane's future at the club once again in doubt, there is little clarity about where exactly they go next.
How the season played out
When does the 2023/24 Premier League season start?
The Premier League season will kick-off on August 12 and conclude nine months later on May 19, 2024.
The start is one week later than the 2022/23 launch as the schedule returns to normal following the Covid-19 pandemic and the Qatar 2022 World Cup, which provided disruption during the previous three seasons.
However, the fixture list provides for a return of the mid-season player break which will take place between January 13-20.
Fixtures for the new Premier League season will be revealed at 9am on Thursday June 15
Match Events
0' The match is about to start!
2' GOAL! Leeds United 0-1 Tottenham (Kane)
6' Koch's header wide out
14' Yellow Card! Maximilian Wöber booked
45' Rodrigo's header wide out
47' GOAL! Leeds United 0-2 Tottenham (Pedro Porro)
67' GOAL! Leeds United 1-2 Tottenham (Jack Harrison)
69' GOAL! Leeds United 1-3 Tottenham (Kane)
95' GOAL! Leeds United 1-4 Tottenham (Lucas)
Line-ups
Leeds United XI: Liam Cooper, Robles, Adam Forshaw, Rodrigo, Ayling, Koch, Maximilian Wöber, Rasmus Kristensen, Jack Harrison, Pascal Struijk, McKennie
Subs: Roca, Firpo, Illan Meslier, Sam Greenwood, Brenden Aaronson, Georginio Rutter, Crysencio Summerville, Wilfried Gnonto, Jeremiah Chilokoa-Mullen
Tottenham XI: Fraser Forster, Son, Kane, Ben Davies, Lenglet, Sanchez, Bissouma, Skipp, Kulusevski, Aparecido, Pedro Porro
Subs: Lucas, Richarlison, Arnaut Danjuma, Tanganga, Austin, Pape Matar Sarr, Matthew Craig, Yago Santiago, George Abbott