London: Despite achieving their biggest Premier League win of the season by beating Everton 5-1, Arsenal surrendered a Champions League position to their arch rivals Tottenham Hotspur who also hit five goals, without reply, against relegated Norwich, to claim fourth position in the Premier League.
The curtain came down on the season with Manchester City claiming the Premier League crown for the fourth time in five seasons after defeating Aston Villa, 3-2 and in doing so they pipped Liverpool to the title by one point.
Gunners manager, Mikel Arteta, whose side will now play in Europa League next season, said: “I don’t get much satisfaction from the Europa League. I am still in pain from what happened in Newcastle (their defeat) on Monday night because I’m a winner and I hate losing. And we lost something that we could have won.”
He added: “Today we did what we had to do but we knew it wasn’t in our hands and we needed a miracle that didn’t happen. We have tried to squeeze the lemon to the very last drop but the league table doesn’t lie. Last year Chelsea were in the Champions League with 67 points and we have 69 but we are out of it. That is the level this league demands now."
“We know where we have to get to and we are not going to stop. We have to assess how we get to the next level and we know what we want to do to get there. The feeling of guilt at not reaching our target is painful.”
Knowing they had to win and hoping Spurs would lose their match in order to qualify for Champions League, Arsenal began with furious pace and were superior to Everton in every department. But they had to wait until the 27th minute for the first goal when Alexander Iwobi handled the ball and VAR decided on the penalty which was converted by Gabriel Martinelli.
Just four minutes later Eddie Nketiah headed in a flick from Martinelli following a corner. But the deficit was reduced on the stroke of half time with Donny van de Beek tapping in a cross from Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
With poor defending by Everton, the Gunners helped themselves to three goals in the second half. The first two came in quick succession. Cedric Soares powerfully drove home from a corner in the 56th minute and three minutes later Martinelli left-footed his shot inside the far post. Finally, with eight minutes remaining, Martin Odegaard completed the Gunners tally with a fine left-footed shot into the net.
Everton manager, Frank Lampard said: “Our big final was on Thursday and we won it (beating Crystal Palace to avoid relegation). This was just a step too far. My feeling is one of absolute delight and relief that we kept the club in the Premier League because confidence and form was low when I arrived and the direction was taking us down. We need to work quickly to improve the squad to make sure we are not in this position.”
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