Arsenal secures return to Champions League on day of farewells for Everton and Vardy
Arsenal has sealed its place in next season’s Champions League. Nottingham Forest still has a shot at making it, too.
On an emotional afternoon of farewells for Everton and Jamie Vardy, Arsenal claimed the most telling win in the Premier League on Sunday by beating Newcastle 1-0 thanks to Declan Rice’s outside-of-the-area curler.
It earned Mikel Arteta’s team the second automatic Champions League spot, alongside already-crowned Premier League champion Liverpool. The five teams below them are battling for the remaining three qualification places in Europe’s lucrative elite club competition and the fight couldn’t be closer with a week left in the season.
Newcastle stayed in third place, tied on points with Chelsea and Aston Villa and just one point ahead of Manchester City and Forest, which held on to beat West Ham 2-1 and stay alive in the race for a top-five finish.
That would be a remarkable achievement for Forest, which narrowly avoided relegation last season.
City has a game in hand, at home to Bournemouth on Tuesday, and can jump to third with a win. Forest finishes the season at home to Chelsea in what could yet prove to effectively be a Champions League playoff.
Another beauty from Rice
Two superbly executed free kicks against Real Madrid in the Champions League this season demonstrated Rice’s ability from long range and he showed off that talent again against Newcastle, meeting an inside pass from Martin Odegaard with a first-time shot that whipped into the far corner.
Arsenal is looking good for a third straight runner-up finish in the league, with Arteta and his players yet to perfect balancing domestic and European campaigns in their search for a first major trophy since 2020.
Arsenal’s form in the league dipped while getting past Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals and then losing to Paris Saint-Germain in the semis.
“We obviously went so hard in the Champions League and our form dropped in the Premier League,” Rice said. “We have to be at the level every single week … the league slipped away a few weeks ago and it was really tough to take.”
Newcastle, which was without star striker Alexander Isak because of a groin injury, finishes the season at home to Everton and will almost certainly qualify for the Champions League with a win.
A tribute to Awoniyi
Morgan Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovic were the scorers for Forest at the Olympic Stadium, before West Ham mounted a late comeback and saw in-form forward Jarrod Bowen reduce the deficit.
Gibbs-White dedicated his goal to teammate Taiwo Awoniyi, who is recovering in the hospital from emergency abdominal surgery after colliding with a goalpost in a match last weekend.
The Forest captain held Awoniyi’s shirt up to the crowd after scoring, with the team having warmed up wearing shirts with Awoniyi’s name and No. 9 on the back — with a message on the front reading, “We’re all with you Taiwo.”
Winning farewell to Goodison
Everton said goodbye to Goodison, its home of 133 years, with a 2-0 victory over Southampton thanks to two goals by Iliman Ndiaye.
Fans wept and former stars, like Wayne Rooney, took part in an “End of an Era” post-match party inside one of English soccer’s classic stadiums that will continue to be in operation.
It will be the new home of Everton’s women’s team from next season, while the men’s team is headed to a nearby 53,000-seat stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Tens of thousands of fans gathered in the streets outside Goodison before the game and then filled the stadium with an energy that Everton manager David Moyes wants to bottle.
“The scenes outside the stadium were incredible,” Moyes said, “and it felt like a club which has needed some big days and some big things in the future. So let’s hope this is the start of it.”
Vardy delivers on his big day
It was a special day, too, for Vardy, who was playing his 500th and last match for Leicester exactly 13 years to the day he joined from non-league Fleetwood Town.
He marked the occasion by scoring against Ipswich with his 200th goal for the club he famously helped to win the Premier League against the odds in 2016.
It was the first goal in Leicester’s 2-0 win over Ipswich and Vardy was given a guard of honor by teammates when he was substituted in the 80th minute.
Fulham scored two goals in a three-minute span from 2-1 down to win 3-2 at Brentford.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer