Tamil Diplomat

Premier League: On final day, Manchester City secure fourth place, Arsenal jump to second

Samakalam
May 16

Manchester City secured fourth place and Arsenal overhauled their arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur to come second on a dramatic final day of the Premier League season when a bomb scare rocked Old Trafford on Sunday.After Manchester United’s game against Bournemouth was abandoned due to a security alert, Manchester City drew 1-1 at Swansea City, Arsenal crushed Aston Villa 4-0 and Spurs capitulated 5-1 at 10-man Newcastle United to blow their chance of finishing above their neighbours for the first time since 1995.

“First of all I would like to apologise to our fans,” Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said.“I think they don’t deserve all that happened today on the pitch and I apologise.”Champions Leicester City drew 1-1 at Chelsea to end the campaign 10 points ahead of the chasing pack, another staggering achievement in a remarkable season for Claudio Ranieri’s team.Manchester City needed a point to make sure of claiming the final Champions League qualifying spot but their game at Swansea started in a strange atmosphere caused by the events at Old Trafford.

Two stands were evacuated 20 minutes ahead of kickoff and the game was abandoned shortly before the scheduled 1400 GMT start. A controlled explosion was later carried out on a suspect package, described by police as “an incredibly lifelike explosive device”.Manchester City made the perfect start when Kelechi Iheanacho fired them ahead after five minutes.Swansea equalised on the stroke of halftime through Andre Ayew’s deflected free kick and the visitors endured a few nervy moments in Manuel Pellegrini’s last match in charge before celebrating the point they needed.

“Well into this season we were well in the title race, but we let ourselves down, we will take positives of a trophy and semi-final of the Champions League, which was history for our club,” City goalkeeper Joe Hart said.“I have enjoyed our time under Manuel, it was important we finished off a good three years working with him.”(SPORTS EXPRESS,2016).