Marko Arnautovic and Manuel Lanzini scored spectacular second-half goals as West Ham ended the season with a 3-1 victory over Everton that secured David Moyes’ side a final position of 13th in the Premier League table.
Lanzini took advantage of the gaps in front of Everton’s defence to give West Ham the lead shortly before half-time with a low, left-footed drive from outside the box and Arnautovic netted the pick of his 11 league goals this term just after the hour mark.
Oumar Niasse pulled one back for Everton after 74 minutes, but only after he had missed a golden opportunity earlier in the game, while Wayne Rooney – who is rumoured to be negotiating a transfer to the MLS – was not in Sam Allardyce’s matchday squad.
A brilliant solo effort from Lanzini made it 3-1 with just under 10 minutes left and the London Stadium crowd enjoyed a rare happy afternoon, but if Moyes was hoping to end the campaign with a performance to savour, he didn’t quite get it.
Allardyce, meanwhile, was left to rue his side’s wastefulness in front of goal, but will hope that a final league position of eighth will be enough to keep him at the club next season.
West Ham’s patient early build-up play almost paid off when the ball fell to Mark Noble in the penalty area, but his shot from close range found Jordan Pickford in fine form, the Everton goalkeeper diving down to his left to make a one-handed block.
Hammers wing-back Arthur Masuaku was forced off with an ankle injury following a clumsy challenge from Ramiro Funes Mori, who was booked, before Lanzini teed up Joao Mario to lash the ball narrowly wide to the right of Pickford’s goal from 20 yards.
A mistake by Angelo Ogbonna allowed Niasse a one-on-one with Adrian just after the half-hour mark, but the Senegalese striker aimed too close to the goalkeeper, who saved his low shot with an outstretched leg.
Niasse was made to rue his miss six minutes before half-time when Arnautovic failed to control Cheikhou Kouyate’s pass but the ball fell kindly to Lanzini who strode forward before driving a shot into the bottom-right corner of the net.
West Ham continued to control the tempo of the game in the second half before Arnautovic delivered a moment of brilliant, receiving the ball from Edimilson Fernandes before turning Michael Keane and letting rip with a swerving shot from 25 yards that was simply too powerful for Pickford.
Arnautovic had a headed goal disallowed before Declan Rice’s failure to deal with a near-post corner at the other end allowed the ball to reach Niasse, who skilfully controlled the ball before lashing it high into the net from the edge of the six-yard box.
Just as Everton looked set to mount a comeback, Pablo Zabaleta’s cross-field ball found Lanzini, who cut inside before curling a right-footed shot into the top corner of the net beyond the diving Pickford.
Adrian made a superb double-save in the dying minutes before James Collins came on for what is likely to be his final West Ham appearance, and for once the atmosphere around London Stadium was harmonious and celebratory at the end of a gruelling season.
Newcastle 3-0
Owen Humphreys
Owen Humphreys
Chelsea produced an abject performance as they missed out on a place in next season’s Champions League by going down 3-0 at Newcastle United on Sunday.
Antonio Conte’s side went into their final Premier League match of the season needing a win and a slip-up from Liverpool to book a place in the top four, but the deposed champions failed to keep up their end of the bargain.
Liverpool’s 4-0 victory over Brighton and Hove Albion meant Chelsea would have had to settle for Europa League football even if they left St James’ Park with three points, but the limp nature of their performance will provide concerns ahead of the FA Cup final against Manchester United next weekend.
Conte, whose uncertain future at the club is expected to be clarified before the end of the month, suggested at his pre-match news conference that missing out on the top four would not hurt the Blues, and his team evidently lacked the desire to make a fist of a late challenge.
Chelsea failed to register a single shot at goal in the first half and Dwight Gayle gave Newcastle a deserved lead in the 23rd minute, putting Rafael Benitez on the path to a first Premier League win against one of his former clubs, as well as a 10th-place finish.
Gayle went off injured early in the second period but a four-minute double from Ayoze Perez saw the Magpies home for a comfortable victory, with FA Cup glory unlikely to be enough to remove the bitter taste for Chelsea and keep Conte at Stamford Bridge next season.
Thibaut Courtois returned to the line-up after missing the draw against Huddersfield Town in midweek with a back injury and was forced into action by Jonjo Shelvey and Mohamed Diame in the opening 10 minutes.
After Diame went close again, the Magpies finally got the goal they deserved when Jacob Murphy looped Matt Ritchie’s delivery over Courtois, who clawed it off the line and onto the head of Gayle for a simple finish.
Chelsea offered minimal protection to Courtois. The goalkeeper kept out Gayle from 20 yards before Newcastle were denied two penalties by referee Martin Atkinson – claims for handball by Andreas Christensen and a challenge on Perez by Cesar Azpilicueta going ignored.
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Chelsea finally got a shot on target in the 52nd minute, as a magnificent flick from Olivier Giroud was tipped over by Newcastle’s on-loan keeper Martin Dubravka.
The Magpies doubled their lead before the hour mark, Shelvey firing Tiemoue Bakayoko’s attempted clearance into the box, where Perez swept it into the bottom-left corner.
Dubravka did brilliantly to stop Ross Barkley – involved for the first time since January – finishing off a Chelsea counter-attack and Newcastle quickly extended their advantage.
Ritchie’s deep, right-wing free-kick was sent back across goal by Florian Lejeune, enabling Perez to tap home from inside the six-yard box.
With an eye on the FA Cup final Chelsea withdrew Eden Hazard and Giroud as they fell to a defeat that brought a frustratingly inconsistent defence of their title to a disappointing end.
Swansea 1-2 Stoke
David Davies
David Davies
Swansea City have been relegated from the Premier League on the final day of the season.
Victory over Stoke City on the final day of the season was the only manner safety could have been achieved for Swansea, who also needed Southampton to fall to champions Manchester City.
But while a late Gabriel Jesus goal downed the Saints, the Swans were unable to seal the three points that would have completed their great escape.
Instead Stoke upset their hosts 2-1, giving travelling fans a final cheer as both sides prepare for a season in the Championship.
Andy King had briefly raised home hopes with an early goal, but Peter Crouch and Badou Ndiaye turned the tables on Swansea to seal their fate.
The Welsh club were promoted from the Championship in 2011, beating Reading 4-2 in a pulsating play-off final, but their stay in the top-flight has now come to an end.
Swansea finished 11th in their debut campaign. Indeed, prior to the 2017-18 season, the Swans had not finished below 15th. Their highest league finish came in 2014-15, under Garry Monk, as they ended the season in eighth.
The Swans join Stoke, their opponents on the final day, and West Brom in dropping through the trapdoor.
The club have endured a miserable season this term, winning just eight games, and tasting defeat 21 times.
Crystal Palace 2-0 West Brom
Dominic Lipinski
Dominic Lipinski
Crystal Palace signed off from an impressive Premier League campaign in a buoyant mood with a 2-0 win over West Brom on Sunday.
Wilfried Zaha and Patrick van Aanholt netted inside the final 20 minutes to add further gloss to Roy Hodgson’s remarkable revival act at Selhurst Park.
The veteran Englishman took over from the sacked Frank de Boer with the Eagles in a perilous position but will feel a keen sense of redemption after leading his boyhood club to a highly-creditable finishing place of 11th.
Though Darren Moore’s five-match unbeaten run came to an end at the final hurdle, the West Brom caretaker can take similar satisfaction from a brief, encouraging stint that has seen him collect more points than both Tony Pulis and Alan Pardew in a largely miserable season for the Baggies.
They will attempt to make a quick return from the Championship next term – having been relegated by Southampton’s midweek win at Swansea City – and Moore, who will meet the board this coming week, has made a compelling case to be entrusted with that responsibility.
This final outing, though, was all about Hodgson and regular match-winner Zaha, who broke the deadlock in the 70th minute from a Van Aanholt assist, the Netherlands international doubling the advantage eight minutes later.
Bright sunshine and an optimistic crowd created an expectation of entertainment and the two sides initially seemed willing to oblige with Luka Milivojevic and Grzegorz Krychowiak both firing narrowly wide in the opening 10 minutes.
Palace appeared the more likely to find an early way through and might have done so had James McArthur opted to shoot inside the box rather than squaring for an off-balance Zaha, whose mishit finish was met by Ben Foster’s outstretched boot.
The Baggies soon settled into the compact shape Moore has successfully crafted and while it prevented them from posing a genuine attacking threat, they did nullify the danger of Zaha through to the end of a scoreless first half.
The hosts stepped up the intensity soon after the restart as Foster first held Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s meek attempt, before Ivory Coast international Zaha sliced wide from Van Aanholt’s cut-back.
And they should have gone ahead when Zaha led a counter-attack to the edge of the area and laid a pass into the path of Andros Townsend, who slipped as he pulled the trigger and failed to even test Foster in a one-on-one.
Van Aanholt adds Palace's second Dominic Lipinski
Dominic Lipinski
Instead, it was left to the Eagles’ main man to do the damage. Van Aanholt overlapped again on the left and his low cross was this time diverted into the bottom-right corner by Zaha, his ninth league goal of an exceptional individual campaign.
Provider for the opener, it was the left-back Van Aanholt who applied the finishing touch as he got on the end of a neat one-touch move, rounded Foster and squeezed the ball home to round off Palace’s impressive end to the season.
Burnley 1-2 Bournemouth
Richard Sellers
Richard Sellers
Josh King and Callum Wilson spoiled Burnley’s European qualification party with second-half goals to help Bournemouth earn a 2-1 win at Turf Moor on the final day of the Premier League season.
The Clarets were already guaranteed a seventh-place finish before Sunday’s game – their highest top-flight position since the 1973-74 campaign, when they placed sixth.
It looked like they would end 2017-18 with a return to winning ways after four matches without a victory, before King levelled with a fine strike and Wilson netted the winner in injury time.
Chris Wood had given Sean Dyche’s side a first-half lead, inadvertently diverting Ashley Westwood’s goal-bound effort past Asmir Begovic in the 39th minute.
Jeff Hendrick squandered a good opportunity to put the game beyond Eddie Howe’s side early in the second half – something they would later pay for.
After a wonderful season, Dyche and Burnley’s attentions will now turn to building on their Premier League success next season and gearing up for a first European adventure since 1966-67.
Nick Pope, who still harbours hopes of making England’s World Cup squad, got down well to repel Lys Mousset’s low drive after a surging run from Jordon Ibe.
The Burnley goalkeeper was called into action again moments later to push away Charlie Daniels’ powerful drive from just inside the penalty area.
The hosts belatedly created an opening of their own just after the half-hour mark, but Jack Cork dragged his shot from the edge of the area disappointingly wide of Begovic’s right-hand post.
The Clarets’ more positive approach towards the end of the first half was rewarded six minutes before the interval when Wood scored his 10th Premier League goal of the season – not that he knew a great deal about it.
Stephen Ward’s cross was fired towards goal by Westwood, clipping the former Leeds United striker’s heel just a few yards out and looping over the wrong-footed Begovic.
Hendrick should have doubled Burnley’s advantage shortly after the restart, but fired straight at Begovic from 15 yards, while Ibe flashed an effort wide of Pope’s far post.
Burnley’s hopes of ending the season with a win were extinguished with 16 minutes remaining when King took advantage of some generous defending.
The home defence made a real mess of clearing after Pope had kept out substitute Jermain Defoe’s close-range effort, allowing King to cut in from the left and whip a fierce drive into the far top corner.
Their woe was compounded in the third minute of added time when Kevin Long was caught in possession by Defoe, who unselfishly squared to Wilson to stroke past Pope and seal the win.
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Lanzini double gives Moyes hope as abject Blues take thumping at Newcastle
West Ham 3-1 Everton
Marko Arnautovic and Manuel Lanzini scored spectacular second-half goals as West Ham ended the season with a 3-1 victory over Everton that secured David Moyes’ side a final position of 13th in the Premier League table.
Lanzini took advantage of the gaps in front of Everton’s defence to give West Ham the lead shortly before half-time with a low, left-footed drive from outside the box and Arnautovic netted the pick of his 11 league goals this term just after the hour mark.
Oumar Niasse pulled one back for Everton after 74 minutes, but only after he had missed a golden opportunity earlier in the game, while Wayne Rooney – who is rumoured to be negotiating a transfer to the MLS – was not in Sam Allardyce’s matchday squad.
A brilliant solo effort from Lanzini made it 3-1 with just under 10 minutes left and the London Stadium crowd enjoyed a rare happy afternoon, but if Moyes was hoping to end the campaign with a performance to savour, he didn’t quite get it.
Allardyce, meanwhile, was left to rue his side’s wastefulness in front of goal, but will hope that a final league position of eighth will be enough to keep him at the club next season.
West Ham’s patient early build-up play almost paid off when the ball fell to Mark Noble in the penalty area, but his shot from close range found Jordan Pickford in fine form, the Everton goalkeeper diving down to his left to make a one-handed block.
Hammers wing-back Arthur Masuaku was forced off with an ankle injury following a clumsy challenge from Ramiro Funes Mori, who was booked, before Lanzini teed up Joao Mario to lash the ball narrowly wide to the right of Pickford’s goal from 20 yards.
A mistake by Angelo Ogbonna allowed Niasse a one-on-one with Adrian just after the half-hour mark, but the Senegalese striker aimed too close to the goalkeeper, who saved his low shot with an outstretched leg.
Niasse was made to rue his miss six minutes before half-time when Arnautovic failed to control Cheikhou Kouyate’s pass but the ball fell kindly to Lanzini who strode forward before driving a shot into the bottom-right corner of the net.
West Ham continued to control the tempo of the game in the second half before Arnautovic delivered a moment of brilliant, receiving the ball from Edimilson Fernandes before turning Michael Keane and letting rip with a swerving shot from 25 yards that was simply too powerful for Pickford.
Arnautovic had a headed goal disallowed before Declan Rice’s failure to deal with a near-post corner at the other end allowed the ball to reach Niasse, who skilfully controlled the ball before lashing it high into the net from the edge of the six-yard box.
Just as Everton looked set to mount a comeback, Pablo Zabaleta’s cross-field ball found Lanzini, who cut inside before curling a right-footed shot into the top corner of the net beyond the diving Pickford.
Adrian made a superb double-save in the dying minutes before James Collins came on for what is likely to be his final West Ham appearance, and for once the atmosphere around London Stadium was harmonious and celebratory at the end of a gruelling season.
Newcastle 3-0
Chelsea produced an abject performance as they missed out on a place in next season’s Champions League by going down 3-0 at Newcastle United on Sunday.
Antonio Conte’s side went into their final Premier League match of the season needing a win and a slip-up from Liverpool to book a place in the top four, but the deposed champions failed to keep up their end of the bargain.
Liverpool’s 4-0 victory over Brighton and Hove Albion meant Chelsea would have had to settle for Europa League football even if they left St James’ Park with three points, but the limp nature of their performance will provide concerns ahead of the FA Cup final against Manchester United next weekend.
Conte, whose uncertain future at the club is expected to be clarified before the end of the month, suggested at his pre-match news conference that missing out on the top four would not hurt the Blues, and his team evidently lacked the desire to make a fist of a late challenge.
Chelsea failed to register a single shot at goal in the first half and Dwight Gayle gave Newcastle a deserved lead in the 23rd minute, putting Rafael Benitez on the path to a first Premier League win against one of his former clubs, as well as a 10th-place finish.
Gayle went off injured early in the second period but a four-minute double from Ayoze Perez saw the Magpies home for a comfortable victory, with FA Cup glory unlikely to be enough to remove the bitter taste for Chelsea and keep Conte at Stamford Bridge next season.
Thibaut Courtois returned to the line-up after missing the draw against Huddersfield Town in midweek with a back injury and was forced into action by Jonjo Shelvey and Mohamed Diame in the opening 10 minutes.
After Diame went close again, the Magpies finally got the goal they deserved when Jacob Murphy looped Matt Ritchie’s delivery over Courtois, who clawed it off the line and onto the head of Gayle for a simple finish.
Chelsea offered minimal protection to Courtois. The goalkeeper kept out Gayle from 20 yards before Newcastle were denied two penalties by referee Martin Atkinson – claims for handball by Andreas Christensen and a challenge on Perez by Cesar Azpilicueta going ignored.
Chelsea finally got a shot on target in the 52nd minute, as a magnificent flick from Olivier Giroud was tipped over by Newcastle’s on-loan keeper Martin Dubravka.
The Magpies doubled their lead before the hour mark, Shelvey firing Tiemoue Bakayoko’s attempted clearance into the box, where Perez swept it into the bottom-left corner.
Dubravka did brilliantly to stop Ross Barkley – involved for the first time since January – finishing off a Chelsea counter-attack and Newcastle quickly extended their advantage.
Ritchie’s deep, right-wing free-kick was sent back across goal by Florian Lejeune, enabling Perez to tap home from inside the six-yard box.
With an eye on the FA Cup final Chelsea withdrew Eden Hazard and Giroud as they fell to a defeat that brought a frustratingly inconsistent defence of their title to a disappointing end.
Swansea 1-2 Stoke
Swansea City have been relegated from the Premier League on the final day of the season.
Victory over Stoke City on the final day of the season was the only manner safety could have been achieved for Swansea, who also needed Southampton to fall to champions Manchester City.
But while a late Gabriel Jesus goal downed the Saints, the Swans were unable to seal the three points that would have completed their great escape.
Instead Stoke upset their hosts 2-1, giving travelling fans a final cheer as both sides prepare for a season in the Championship.
Andy King had briefly raised home hopes with an early goal, but Peter Crouch and Badou Ndiaye turned the tables on Swansea to seal their fate.
The Welsh club were promoted from the Championship in 2011, beating Reading 4-2 in a pulsating play-off final, but their stay in the top-flight has now come to an end.
Swansea finished 11th in their debut campaign. Indeed, prior to the 2017-18 season, the Swans had not finished below 15th. Their highest league finish came in 2014-15, under Garry Monk, as they ended the season in eighth.
The Swans join Stoke, their opponents on the final day, and West Brom in dropping through the trapdoor.
The club have endured a miserable season this term, winning just eight games, and tasting defeat 21 times.
Crystal Palace 2-0 West Brom
Crystal Palace signed off from an impressive Premier League campaign in a buoyant mood with a 2-0 win over West Brom on Sunday.
Wilfried Zaha and Patrick van Aanholt netted inside the final 20 minutes to add further gloss to Roy Hodgson’s remarkable revival act at Selhurst Park.
The veteran Englishman took over from the sacked Frank de Boer with the Eagles in a perilous position but will feel a keen sense of redemption after leading his boyhood club to a highly-creditable finishing place of 11th.
Though Darren Moore’s five-match unbeaten run came to an end at the final hurdle, the West Brom caretaker can take similar satisfaction from a brief, encouraging stint that has seen him collect more points than both Tony Pulis and Alan Pardew in a largely miserable season for the Baggies.
They will attempt to make a quick return from the Championship next term – having been relegated by Southampton’s midweek win at Swansea City – and Moore, who will meet the board this coming week, has made a compelling case to be entrusted with that responsibility.
This final outing, though, was all about Hodgson and regular match-winner Zaha, who broke the deadlock in the 70th minute from a Van Aanholt assist, the Netherlands international doubling the advantage eight minutes later.
Bright sunshine and an optimistic crowd created an expectation of entertainment and the two sides initially seemed willing to oblige with Luka Milivojevic and Grzegorz Krychowiak both firing narrowly wide in the opening 10 minutes.
Palace appeared the more likely to find an early way through and might have done so had James McArthur opted to shoot inside the box rather than squaring for an off-balance Zaha, whose mishit finish was met by Ben Foster’s outstretched boot.
The Baggies soon settled into the compact shape Moore has successfully crafted and while it prevented them from posing a genuine attacking threat, they did nullify the danger of Zaha through to the end of a scoreless first half.
The hosts stepped up the intensity soon after the restart as Foster first held Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s meek attempt, before Ivory Coast international Zaha sliced wide from Van Aanholt’s cut-back.
And they should have gone ahead when Zaha led a counter-attack to the edge of the area and laid a pass into the path of Andros Townsend, who slipped as he pulled the trigger and failed to even test Foster in a one-on-one.
Instead, it was left to the Eagles’ main man to do the damage. Van Aanholt overlapped again on the left and his low cross was this time diverted into the bottom-right corner by Zaha, his ninth league goal of an exceptional individual campaign.
Provider for the opener, it was the left-back Van Aanholt who applied the finishing touch as he got on the end of a neat one-touch move, rounded Foster and squeezed the ball home to round off Palace’s impressive end to the season.
Burnley 1-2 Bournemouth
Josh King and Callum Wilson spoiled Burnley’s European qualification party with second-half goals to help Bournemouth earn a 2-1 win at Turf Moor on the final day of the Premier League season.
The Clarets were already guaranteed a seventh-place finish before Sunday’s game – their highest top-flight position since the 1973-74 campaign, when they placed sixth.
It looked like they would end 2017-18 with a return to winning ways after four matches without a victory, before King levelled with a fine strike and Wilson netted the winner in injury time.
Chris Wood had given Sean Dyche’s side a first-half lead, inadvertently diverting Ashley Westwood’s goal-bound effort past Asmir Begovic in the 39th minute.
Jeff Hendrick squandered a good opportunity to put the game beyond Eddie Howe’s side early in the second half – something they would later pay for.
After a wonderful season, Dyche and Burnley’s attentions will now turn to building on their Premier League success next season and gearing up for a first European adventure since 1966-67.
Nick Pope, who still harbours hopes of making England’s World Cup squad, got down well to repel Lys Mousset’s low drive after a surging run from Jordon Ibe.
The Burnley goalkeeper was called into action again moments later to push away Charlie Daniels’ powerful drive from just inside the penalty area.
The hosts belatedly created an opening of their own just after the half-hour mark, but Jack Cork dragged his shot from the edge of the area disappointingly wide of Begovic’s right-hand post.
The Clarets’ more positive approach towards the end of the first half was rewarded six minutes before the interval when Wood scored his 10th Premier League goal of the season – not that he knew a great deal about it.
Stephen Ward’s cross was fired towards goal by Westwood, clipping the former Leeds United striker’s heel just a few yards out and looping over the wrong-footed Begovic.
Hendrick should have doubled Burnley’s advantage shortly after the restart, but fired straight at Begovic from 15 yards, while Ibe flashed an effort wide of Pope’s far post.
Burnley’s hopes of ending the season with a win were extinguished with 16 minutes remaining when King took advantage of some generous defending.
The home defence made a real mess of clearing after Pope had kept out substitute Jermain Defoe’s close-range effort, allowing King to cut in from the left and whip a fierce drive into the far top corner.
Their woe was compounded in the third minute of added time when Kevin Long was caught in possession by Defoe, who unselfishly squared to Wilson to stroke past Pope and seal the win.
- Omni
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David Moyes Everton Football Manuel Lanzini Marko Arnautovic Premier League Review Round-Up Sam Allardyce West Ham United