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Arsenal seal Champions League spot on day of Premier League farewells
Steve Douglas • May 19th, 2025 8:00 am
Photo: AP
Arsenal have sealed their spot in next season's Champions League while on an emotional afternoon of farewells for Everton and Jamie Vardy.
Declan Rice's outside-of-the-area curler into the far corner earned Arsenal a 1-0 win over Newcastle and the second automatic Champions League spot, alongside already-crowned Premier League champions Liverpool.
Five teams below them are battling for the remaining three places in Europe's lucrative top club competition and the fight couldn't be closer with a week left.
Newcastle stayed in third, tied on points with Chelsea and Aston Villa and just one point ahead of Manchester City and Nottingham Forest, who held on to beat West Ham 2-1 on Monday (NZ time) and stay alive in the race for a top-five finish.
That would be a remarkable achievement for Forest, who narrowly avoided relegation last season.
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City have a game in hand, at home to Bournemouth on Tuesday, and can jump to third with a win.
Forest finish the season at home to Chelsea in what could yet prove to effectively be a Champions League play-off.
Morgan Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovic were the scorers for Forest at the Olympic Stadium, before West Ham mounted a late comeback with in-form forward Jarrod Bowen reducing 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."
Everton said goodbye to Goodison, their home of 133 years, with a 2-0 victory over Southampton thanks to two goals by Iliman Ndiaye.
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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 as the new home of Everton's women's team from next season. The men's team will move to a nearby 53,000-seat stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
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.
The 38-year-old 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 honour by teammates when he was substituted in the 80th minute.
"It's been amazing, it's been a rollercoaster, it really has," an emotional Vardy told the crowd.
"But the good thing is there's been way, way, way more highs and I thank everyone. I never thought we'd be in the Champions League, we'd win the league and we've all been there for a reason.
"The only thing I really can say, from the bottom of my heart, is thank you for taking me and my family in as one of your own. Thank you all so much."
Fulham scored two goals in a three-minute span from 2-1 down to win 3-2 at Brentford.
