Arsenal qualified for the
Champions League for the 16th
straight season after edging
Tottenham to fourth place in the
Premier League. Laurent Koscielny's 52nd-minute
volley sealed an unconvincing 1-0
win for Arsenal at Newcastle,
rendering Spurs' 1-0 victory over
Sunderland - courtesy of a late
screamer from Gareth Bale -- meaningless.

"We celebrated a bit like we had
won the championship, which was
a bit weird considering the
ambition at the start of the
season," said Arsenal goalkeeper
Wojciech Szczesny, whose team won eight and drew two of its
last 10 games of the campaign. Chelsea finished third -- and
claimed the last automatic
Champions League spot -- by
beating Everton 2-1 thanks to
Fernando Torres' winner in Rafa
Benitez's last game in charge of the Europa League champions. Bale guaranteed an extremely
tense final few minutes in the
race for fourth between the
fierce north London rivals by
smashing a trademark long-range
effort high into the net in the 88th minute at White Hart Lane,
meaning Arsenal needed to hold
onto its lead at St. James Park. Arsenal winger Theo Walcott slid a
shot against the post in injury
time to keep Tottenham's hopes
alive, but Newcastle couldn't find
an equalizer. "It was so tense," Walcott said.
"We had to dig deep and our
defense was so solid. We did our
job and we are so happy." Tottenham was third and seven
points clear of Arsenal after
winning the north London derby
in March. But not even Bale's
stream of match-winning goals in
recent weeks could hold off Arsenal's end-of-season
resurgence, just like last season. "It is difficult to take. In the end
we did what we had to, but
Arsenal did their job well and go
through," Spurs manager Andre
Villas-Boas said. "It is difficult at
this moment." To make matters worse for
Spurs, failing to reach the
Champions League will
undoubtedly increase the
speculation surrounding the
future of Bale, who has been linked with many of the world's
top teams after a brilliant season
in which he won English football's
Player of the Year award. "We have missed out and it is
another hard day to take,"
Tottenham defender Michael
Dawson said. "We can't just look
at today -- we put ourselves in
this position. We hoped Arsenal would slip up but they didn't,
unfortunately."

Arsenal qualifying for the
Champions League for the 16th
straight season is no surprise because Arsenal is a good and strong team.

Wenger hails UCL qualification

Arsene Wenger celebrates with Per Mertesacker at full- time after booking a place in the Champions League

Congrat to all Arsenal fans, this shows that the team is a strong team to be looking up when it comes to securing a seat in the champions league spot.