Arsenal on Sunday secured UEFA Champions League qualification thanks to a 1-0 win over Newcastle United as Everton said farewell to Goodison Park with an emotional 2-0 victory over Southampton.
Declan Rice scored the only goal at the Emirates in the battle between second and third to guarantee the consolation of a top-five finish for Mikel Arteta’s men at the end of another trophyless season.
Rice continued his goalscoring form with a stunning strike from outside the penalty area on 55 minutes.
Photo: Reuters
“We had a clear dream to deliver a trophy this season. Unfortunately, we haven’t done it, understanding the circumstances we’ve been through, but you have to make sure that chasing a dream doesn’t confuse you and allow you to see all the incredible things this team are doing,” Arteta said.
Defeat means Newcastle still have work to do to join Arsenal in the Champions League next season.
Just one point separates the EFL Cup winners in third from Nottingham Forest in seventh.
Victory over Everton next weekend should be enough for the Magpies due to their much superior goal-difference over fifth-placed Aston Villa.
Magpies head coach Eddie Howe is unsure if Alexander Isak would be fit for that crunch clash after missing the Arsenal game with a groin injury.
“I don’t know at this moment in time. He felt pain after training and went for a scan. It depends a lot on how he reacts,” Howe said. “Fingers crossed he can get there. We have to do our job against Everton.”
Forest maintained their push for a first appearance in Europe’s top competition for 45 years after winning 2-1 at West Ham United.
Morgan Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovic struck for the visitors at the London Stadium as Forest showed support for striker Taiwo Awoniyi, who needed urgent abdominal surgery last week.
Forest must beat Chelsea on the final day of the campaign and hope other results go their way to finish in the top five.
“If we’d thought in the beginning of the season that we’d be playing to play in the Champions League we’d sign [up for] it,” Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santo said.
Everton’s home since 1892, Goodison Park played host to the club’s men’s team for the final time before they head to a new 52,000 capacity stadium next season.
Former England captain Wayne Rooney was among the Toffees’ former greats in attendance as Iliman Ndiaye produced two fine first-half finishes to ensure there was a happy ending to the Goodison era.
“Extraordinary atmosphere. The crowd were amazing. The job was to win the game and see ourselves out at Goodison in a good light,” Everton head coach David Moyes said.
Jamie Vardy brought down the curtain on his Leicester City career with his 200th goal for the club in a 2-0 victory over Ipswich Town.
Vardy was making his 500th and final appearance for the Foxes after a remarkable 13-year spell, including a fairy-tale English Premier League title triumph in 2015-2016 and FA Cup glory in 2020-2021.
The 38-year-old, who started his career in non-league soccer, is to leave at the end of the season and agreed not to play in next weekend’s final game of the season to ensure his last Leicester appearance came at the King Power Stadium.
With both Leicester and Ipswich long since condemned to relegation, the full focus was on Vardy and he took just 28 minutes to make it an unforgettable day as he sprinted onto James Justin’s pass to unleash a typically predatory finish.
Kasey McAteer bagged his first Premier League goal in the 68th minute, firing home to ensure Vardy would bow out on a winning note.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute of this. I look forward to keeping an eye on the club I love,” Vardy said.
Fulham won 3-2 at west London rivals Brentford to remain in the hunt for a top-eight finish, which could yet be enough for European soccer.
Raul Jimenez, Tom Cairney and Harry Wilson were on target for Marco Silva’s men to close to within one point of eighth-placed Brentford.
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
NBA team owners on Tuesday authorized league officials to begin an in-depth analysis regarding expansion, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver said there was no timetable for any changes. The NBA board of governors meeting in Las Vegas marked the first time team owners officially discussed expanding the league beyond 30 teams, but Silver said they went no deeper than requesting more research into the possibility. “There is a significant step now in that we’re now engaging in this in-depth analysis,” Silver said. “It’s something we weren’t prepared to do before, but beyond that, it’s really day one of that analysis. In terms
RSS