Southampton's 11-year stay in the Premier League ended in tame fashion as their relegation was confirmed with defeat at home by Fulham.
Aleksandar Mitrovic, making his return from an eight-game ban for pushing referee Chris Kavanagh, sealed Saints' fate with a stooping header after Carlos Vinicius' opener.
The hosts could have few complaints about the outcome after producing a muted performance despite knowing they had to win to have any chance of pulling off an unlikely survival mission.
They did have a Carlos Alcaraz strike disallowed for a marginal offside just before Vinicius broke the deadlock but the confident Cottagers were comfortably the better side.