Premier League
Arsenal get job done as top-five fight set for photo finish
The fight to finish in the Premier League’s top five and qualify for the Champions League intensified on Sunday but Arsenal can breathe easy on the final day after all-but securing runners-up spot with a 1-0 win over Newcastle United on Sunday.
Declan Rice’s superb 55th-minute strike sealed the points for Arsenal as they avenged three previous losses to Eddie Howe’s Newcastle this season despite a poor first half.
That lifted Arsenal to 71 points, 12 behind runaway champions Liverpool, but crucially mathematically out of reach of all the sides below them barring Manchester City.
Newcastle remained third position but only one point separates them and seventh-placed Nottingham Forest who kept alive their top-five hopes by beating West Ham United 2-1 away.
Forest (65 points) host fourth-placed Chelsea (66) in their final game next weekend while Newcastle (66) welcome Everton.
Aston Villa (66) are currently fifth and face Manchester United at Old Trafford next Sunday.
Sixth-placed Manchester City, who will end the season trophy-less after losing in Saturday’s FA Cup final to Crystal Palace, have 65 points but have two games left to play; Bournemouth at home on Tuesday and Fulham away on Sunday
“It’s going to go to the end and who knows what twists and turns there will be, we need one big effort in the last game,” Newcastle manager Howe said. “We need to be calm.”
Everton waved goodbye to Goodison Park — their home for 133 years and 2,791 games — with a 2-0 victory over Southampton secured by a double from Iliman Ndiaye.
“This team will be remembered in history as the one who played the last game,” Everton manager David Moyes said on an emotional afternoon on Merseyside in which a host of former players including Neville Southall, Wayne Rooney and Duncan Ferguson joined in the farewell celebrations.
Fulham kept alive their slim hopes of creeping into a European qualifying spot by securing a 3-2 win at eighth-placed Brentford.
In a battle for pride at the bottom between two relegated teams, Jamie Vardy scored his 200th goal for Leicester City in his last home appearance for Leicester City in a 2-0 defeat of Ipswich Town to move above them into 18th place.
500TH APPEARANCE
Vardy, who was making his 500th appearance for the club he fired to a fairytale Premier League title in 2016, announced last month that he would be leaving.
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you. For taking myself and family in as one of your own. Hopefully I’ve repaid you for that,” an emotional Vardy told fans on pitch.
Arsenal knew a win over Newcastle would secure a return to the Champions league and almost certainly mean a third successive runners-up finish in the Premier League.
They were indebted to keeper David Raya in the first half as he made a string of saves, but Rice’s sublime strike 10 minutes after the restart lifted the mood of the home fans whose dreams of silverware this season faded away.
“I had a dream and it was to deliver a big trophy this season to our people,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.
“I think we deserve it from the journey we have been through in the last three, four years, but we haven’t achieved that. Now we need to make some steps, some action and come back here fresh on day one next season ready to go.”
Nottingham Forest have already guaranteed a return to European competition for the first time in 30 years but their hopes of claiming a top-five spot and a place in the Champions League have faded in the run-in.
They will head into Sunday’s climax still with hope after a deserved win at West Ham.
Morgan Gibbs-White gave them an early lead after a mistake by home keeper Alphonse Areola and Nikola Milenkovic’s header doubled their lead after the break, although Forest had to endure a six-minute VAR check before they could celebrate.
Jarrod Bowen’s replay meant it was an anxious finale but Forest held on through 17 minutes of stoppage time as the game ended in a series of ugly scuffles between the players.
“We knew we had to win this game. We left it a bit nervy for ourselves towards the end,” Gibbs-White said.
“It’s a do or die (against Chelsea), one last push and we have to give it everything.”
-Reuters
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Thomas Partey, who formerly played for English Premier League soccer club Arsenal, has been charged with rape and sexual assault, London’s Metropolitan Police said on Friday.
Partey, a Ghana international, was charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, with the charges relating to three women and the offences reported to have taken place between 2021 and 2022, the statement said.
Partey’s management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He is due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Aug. 5.
Partey, 32, was signed by Arsenal from Atletico Madrid for 50 million euros ($59 million) in October 2020 and became a key member of Arsenal’s first team.
He was first arrested in July 2022, though he was not named at the time and continued to play for Arsenal while investigations were ongoing.
-Reuters
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Five players including England forward Marcus Rashford and Argentina winger Alejandro Garnacho have informed Manchester United that they wish to explore a future away from the Premier League side, a club source said on Friday.
Brazilian midfielder Antony, Dutch defender Tyrell Malacia and England international Jadon Sancho are also looking to leave the club, the source added.
Rashford, who has made more than 400 senior appearances for United, has fallen out of favour with manager Ruben Amorim, played for Aston Villa on loan while United had their worst-ever Premier League campaign, finishing 15th in the standings.
Amorim had called Rashford’s work rate into question, saying he would rather put a goalkeeper coach on the bench than a player not giving their all.
Rashford said he was feeling fitter and better since joining Villa, where he scored two goals in 10 league appearances.
United also failed to qualify for the Champions League as they lost the Europa League final 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur. Garnacho, who was a late substitute in the final, voiced his displeasure on social media after the loss.
“Up until the final, I played every round helping the team, and today I play 20 minutes, I don’t know,” he wrote in a post . “The final will influence (my decision), but the whole season, the situation of the club.”
Sancho was on loan at Chelsea, where he made 31 league appearances last season. Antony, who joined United from Ajax Amsterdam in 2022 for a reported initial transfer fee of more than $100 million, scored five goals in 17 LaLiga appearances on loan at Real Betis.
Malacia joined Dutch side PSV Eindhoven on loan in February.
-Reuters
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Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes turned down the opportunity to join Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal in order to keep playing “at the highest level”, he said on Tuesday.
The Portuguese midfielder admitted that he had considered the move, which media reports said was worth four times his current salary, after being contacted by Al-Hilal’s president.
“There was that possibility, the president of Al-Hilal called me a month ago to ask me about it,” Fernandes, who is preparing to face Germany with Portugal, told reporters on Tuesday.
“It was a big offer, very ambitious. There was a waiting period for me to think about the future.”
Fernandes ultimately decided to stay at United and said he was motivated by his desire to continue playing at the top level and encouraged by his family and the club’s coach Ruben Amorim.
“I would be willing to do it if Manchester United thought so,” Fernandes added. “I spoke to the coach Ruben Amorim who really tried to talk me out of it. The club said they would not be willing to sell me, only if I wanted to leave.
“I spoke to my wife and family, and she asked me what my personal goals were in my career.
“It would have been easy to move there but I want to keep myself at the highest level, playing in the big competitions and I feel capable of it. I am happy with my decision.”
The 30-year-old Fernandes scored 19 goals and provided 19 assists in 57 appearances across all competitions for United last season, winning the club’s Player of the Year award for the fourth time.
However, it was a season to forget for the team, as they finished 15th in the Premier League, their lowest league finish in half a century, and lost the Europa League final to Tottenham Hotspur.
-Reuters
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