There was only one thing at stake on the final day of the Premier League season – the identity of the fourth team that joins Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea in the Champions League next season. The end result? Arsenal finish fourth and remain in Europe’s top competition after a 1-0 win in Newcastle, while Tottenham beat Sunderland 1-0 as well although it didn’t help them very much. Chelsea remained third after their 2-1 win against Everton, with the Premier League table remaining mostly unchanged.

Laurent Koscielny has been criticized more than once by us and others, but it turns out his defending all throughout the match and especially his goal in the 52nd minute made the difference between colossal failure and a finish and season Arsenal supporters, who have gotten used to underachieving, can get used to, hoping Arsene Wenger has a strong summer of finding better players for the team.

In London, Tottenham needed a win and for Arsenal to lose or draw. While that didn’t happen, Tottenham did manage to end the season with a victory, although it’s unclear how much that comforts Andre Villas-Boas, who knows the brilliant goal Gareth Bale scored might be his last for Spurs, looking for Champions League football next season.

The match of the day was the finale for Alex Ferguson as a Manchester United manager. It ended up being one of the most incredible matches of the season, although it didn’t mean anything to anyone but the Sir. Manchester United were up 5-2, thanks to goals from Shinji Kagawa, Alexander Buttner, Robin van Persie and Javier Hernandez (plus an own goal), but a Romelu Lukaku Hat Trick and two more goals from James Morrison and Youssuf Mulumbu evened things up.

2012-2013 BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
			OVERALL							HOME						AWAY
POS		TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		GD	Pts
1		Manchester United	38	28	5	5	86	43		16	0	3	45	19		12	5	2	41	24		43	89
2		Manchester City	38	23	9	6	66	34		14	3	2	41	15		9	6	4	25	19		32	78
3		Chelsea	38	22	9	7	75	39		12	5	2	41	16		10	4	5	34	23		36	75
4		Arsenal	38	21	10	7	72	37		11	5	3	47	23		10	5	4	25	14		35	73
5		Tottenham Hotspur	38	21	9	8	66	46		11	5	3	29	18		10	4	5	37	28		20	72
6		Everton	38	16	15	7	55	40		12	6	1	33	17		4	9	6	22	23		15	63
7		Liverpool	38	16	13	9	71	43		9	6	4	33	16		7	7	5	38	27		28	61
8		West Bromwich Albion	38	14	7	17	53	57		9	4	6	32	25		5	3	11	21	32		-4	49
9		Swansea City	38	11	13	14	47	51		6	8	5	28	26		5	5	9	19	25		-4	46
10		West Ham United	38	12	10	16	45	53		9	6	4	34	22		3	4	12	11	31		-8	46
11		Norwich City	38	10	14	14	41	58		8	7	4	25	20		2	7	10	16	38		-17	44
12		Fulham	38	11	10	17	50	60		7	3	9	28	30		4	7	8	22	30		-10	43
13		Stoke City	38	9	15	14	34	45		7	7	5	21	22		2	8	9	13	23		-11	42
14		Southampton	38	9	14	15	49	60		6	7	6	26	24		3	7	9	23	36		-11	41
15		Aston Villa	38	10	11	17	47	69		5	5	9	23	28		5	6	8	24	41		-22	41
16		Newcastle United	38	11	8	19	45	68		9	1	9	24	31		2	7	10	21	37		-23	41
17		Sunderland	38	9	12	17	41	54		5	8	6	20	19		4	4	11	21	35		-13	39
18		Wigan Athletic	38	9	9	20	47	73		4	6	9	26	39		5	3	11	21	34		-26	36
19		Reading	38	6	10	22	43	73		4	8	7	23	33		2	2	15	20	40		-30	28
20		Queens Park Rangers	38	4	13	21	30	60		2	8	9	13	28		2	5	12	17	32		-30	25