[Source: Reuters]

Manchester City and Chelsea both secured their Champions League places with victories on the final day of the Premier League season, and Newcastle United joined them despite stumbling to a defeat at home to Everton on Sunday.

Outgoing champions City, whose season has been one to forget, only really required a draw at Fulham but cruised to a 2-0 victory, which meant they finished in third place.

Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea, who began the day in fifth place – the last spot for Champions League qualification – won 1-0 at seventh-placed Nottingham Forest to finish fourth.

Newcastle will be breathing a sigh of relief as their 1-0 defeat by Everton could have opened the door for Aston Villa to climb above them. But Villa went down 2-0 at Manchester United to end in sixth place and take a spot in the Europa League.

Villa, who would have nudged out Newcastle with a draw, had goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez sent off when it was 0-0, and were furious at having a Morgan Rogers goal disallowed shortly before Amad Diallo gave the hosts the lead.

City ended up with 71 points, Chelsea on 69, and Newcastle on 66 points, the same as Villa, but with a better goal difference.

Villa will have to content themselves with a Europa League spot while Forest, who still had hopes of a top-five finish going into the last day, will go into the UEFA Conference League.

Champions Liverpool signed off a memorable campaign with a 1-1 home draw against Crystal Palace in a party atmosphere at Anfield, with Mohamed Salah equalising after Ismaila Sarr had given FA Cup winners Palace an early lead.

Salah’s 84th-minute effort was his 29th league goal of the season to equal Andy Cole and Alan Shearer’s record of 47 goal involvements in a Premier League campaign.

Runners-up Arsenal, who ended 10 points behind Liverpool, beat bottom club Southampton 2-1 away thanks to a late winner by captain Martin Odegaard.

Southampton set an unwanted Premier League record of 30 defeats in a season.

Brighton and Hove Albion brought Europa League winners Tottenham Hotspur down to earth with a bump as they won 4-1 in north London to finish eighth, but that will not be good enough to secure a European berth for the south coast side next season.

Tottenham finished a woeful league season in 17th place, their worst performance since being relegated in 1977.

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