Here are the results of the final game of the 2012/2013 season:
Chelsea 2-1 Everton.
Fernando Torres scored his first Premier League goal of 2013 as Chelsea marked
Rafael Benitez's last game as manager
by securing third place and Champions League football for next season with a thrilling victory over Everton.
Torres steered home the winner with 14 minutes left of a breathless game to round off a memorable week for the
Europa League winners.
Juan Mata slotted the hosts ahead but David Moyes, in
his farewell match after 11 years as Everton boss, saw his side level
through Steven Naismith.
Chelsea dominated the second period and Torres' strike meant that victories for both north London clubs,
Tottenham
and
Arsenal,
did not affect their Champions League qualification.
The Gunners needed a win and for the Blues to lose to
be certain of finishing third and avoid facing a two-legged play-off to
reach the group stages.
And despite a great start, for a long time the hosts gave Arsenal strong hope of at least earning an unprecedented
Premier League play-off
as both sides could have finished level on points, goal difference and goals scored had Chelsea drawn.
Liverpool 1-0 QPR.
Jamie Carragher's farewell Liverpool appearance before retirement ended with a comfortable win over relegated QPR.
The Reds were denied an early goal when Philippe Coutinho's header following a corner seemed to cross the line.
QPR then had a penalty appeal turned down for a Lucas
Leiva trip on striker Loic Remy before Brazilian Coutinho netted with a
25-yard strike.
Carragher almost scored a dream goal
on his departure
only for his long-range shot to bounce back off the post.
The central defender was substituted to a huge ovation
late on, with Anfield bursting into a rendition of 'we all dream of a
team of Carraghers' on his exit.
Earlier, there had been a huge roar as the former
England international walked out for his 737th club appearance. He was
given a guard of honour by both sets of players, with the Kop paying its
own tribute by displaying a mosaic of his initials and squad number.
Man City 2-3 Norwich.
Managerless Manchester City's turbulent week ended with defeat by Norwich in an enthralling final-day encounter.
Poor home defending allowed Anthony Pilkington through
to give Norwich the lead, only for Jack Rodwell to finish a neat Blues
move for the equaliser.
Grant Holt's back-post shot restored the Canaries' lead before Rodwell raced clear to level again.
But Jonny Howson's goal after running from halfway gave Norwich only their second away league win of the season.
In beating four men and sliding past Hart from an
angle, Howson also gave Norwich their first top-flight win at Manchester
City.
It was only the Blues' second home defeat in 48 Premier
League games on their first appearance at the Etihad Stadium since
losing the FA Cup final and
sacking manager Roberto Mancini.
Newcastle 0-1 Arsenal.
Arsenal sealed their 16th consecutive Champions League qualification
as a rare goal from Laurent Koscielny earned them a lucrative victory
over Newcastle.
The French defender latched on to Lukas Podolski's
header following Theo Walcott's free-kick to score his most important
Arsenal goal as they pipped Tottenham to fourth spot in the Premier
League and the final place in Europe's elite competition.
The Gunners finished a point ahead of Andre Villas-Boas's Spurs, who
scored late on to beat Sunderland
but needed to better their rivals' result.
It could have been more comfortable for Arsenal as Walcott hit
the post in stoppage time against a Newcastle side desperate to improve
after recent home defeats to
Sunderland
and
Liverpool.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger and his team saluted their
joyous supporters, who sung "are you watching, Tottenham?" with added
fervour.
Reaching the Champions League ahead of Spurs completed a
superb turnaround after they trailed by seven points at the beginning
of March. Arsenal have now finished above Spurs 18 seasons in a row.
Southampton 1-1 Stoke City.
Rickie Lambert's 15th Premier League goal of the season snatched a
point for Southampton on the day Stoke striker Michael Owen retired from
football.
Peter Crouch headed the visitors in front, only for
Lambert to scramble home from close range to bring Southampton level
soon after.
Owen made an appearance as a second-half substitute in the final game of a glittering professional career.
But the former England striker was unable to influence the outcome.
Stoke finished with their lowest Premier League points tally.
Southampton had more of the ball and the better chances
but failed to capitalise on that dominance to finish 14th, a place
below Stoke.
On the face of it, this was a match on which nothing
rested. And yet, there was still serious money to play for, with both
clubs able to finish as high as 10th or as low as 17th, a difference of
£5m in prize money.
Swansea 0-3 Fulham.
Goals from Alexander Kacaniklic, Dimitar Berbatov and Urby
Emanuelson eased Fulham to an impressive victory at Swansea and ended
their seven-match winless run.
Kacaniklic's instinctive 22nd-minute finish beat Michel Vorm to put the visitors ahead against the run of play.
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Swansea dominated the second half and Pablo Hernandez was twice denied by Mark Schwarzer.
But Fulham secured the points with late strikes from Berbatov and Emanuelson.
Capital One Cup winners Swansea, who had already guaranteed a top-10 finish, knew a home victory plus defeat for
West Brom at home to Manchester United
would secure eighth spot, while Fulham were targeting a first win since
beating QPR on 1 April,
with manager Martin Jol challenging his side to end an increasingly difficult season on a high.
Accordingly, the game at the Liberty Stadium did not
have quite the air of an end-of-season dead rubber. Both sides started
positively and the Cottagers had the first opportunity when Kacaniklic's
pass found Bryan Ruiz, who fluffed his shot.
Tottenham 1-0 Sunderland.
Tottenham fulfilled their part of the bargain with a final-day victory
over Sunderland - but their Champions League ambitions were shattered
by Arsenal's win at Newcastle United.
Gareth Bale added to his catalogue of spectacular goals
with a brilliant late strike but that elation soon turned to deflation
as the news filtered through from Tyneside that Spurs had been thwarted
by their fiercest rivals in the chase for fourth place.
Tottenham's total of 72 points is their highest in the
Premier League but this was of little consolation to manager Andre
Villas-Boas and his players - their faces pictures of dejection as they
trooped down the tunnel after Arsenal's victory was confirmed.
West Brom 5-5 Man Utd.
Sir Alex Ferguson was denied victory in his 1,500th and final game in
charge of Manchester United as Romelu Lukaku's hat-trick earned West
Brom a 5-5 draw.
The champions went 3-0 up through Shinji Kagawa, Jonas Olsson's own goal and Alexander Buttner's fine finish.
James Morrison reduced the deficit and Baggies'
substitute Lukaku made it 3-2, before Robin van Persie and Javier
Hernandez put United 5-2 ahead.
But Lukaku's late double and Youssouf Mulumbu denied Ferguson a winning end.
Watching his side concede three goals in the space of
five minutes late in the game was hardly the finish Ferguson wanted at
the end of a magnificent managerial career.
But the retiring Scot still managed a smile and a wave before disappearing down the tunnel for the last time.
Despite the crazy finish at The Hawthorns, United ended
the season 11 points clear of Premier League runners-up Manchester
City, the most comfortable winning margin since Chelsea beat Arsenal by
12 points in 2004-05.
If Ferguson's official
retirement party was at Old Trafford seven days earlier,
this was the final goodbye.
Nearly 10,000 days since his first match in charge of
United, an inauspicious 2-0 defeat against Oxford United, Ferguson took
his place in the dugout for the final time after players from both sides
had formed a guard of honour.
West Ham 4-2 Reading.
West Ham captain Kevin Nolan scored a hat-trick as relegated Reading
bade farewell to the Premier League with a 22nd defeat of the 38-game
campaign.
The Hammers took a 2-0 first-half lead with Nolan
making the most of an error by keeper Alex McCarthy before Ricardo Vaz
Te drilled in the second.
Reading drew level in three second-half minutes thanks to strikes from Garath McCleary and Adam Le Fondre.
But Nolan slotted home the hosts' third before nodding in a fourth late on.
West Ham dominated for large periods, although they
could have been left with red faces on the final day of the season after
their two-goal advantage evaporated inside the first 15 minutes of the
second half following two quick-fire Royals strikes.
However, the Berkshire side showed their true colours
with more erratic defending which allowed Nolan, who is not blessed with
pace, to twice escape his markers and seal victory for the home side.
That win, their 12th in the league, helped Sam Allardyce's men finish 10th in the table. Reading, whose fate was
sealed at the end of April,
end the season in 19th, with manager Nigel Adkins likely to have
already started planning for next season long before this final
encounter.
Wigan 2-2 Aston Villa.
Wigan signed off their eight-year stay in the Premier League with a
spirited draw against Aston Villa in an entertaining clash at the DW
Stadium.
Darren Bent opened the scoring for Villa early on with a smart finish but Roberto Martinez's side fought back.
Emmerson Boyce equalised with a powerful header and Wigan took the lead when Nathan Baker scored an own goal.
But Wigan were denied all three points when Ron Vlaar levelled after the break with a spectacular half-volley.
Whether the match will be Martinez's last as Wigan manager remains to be seen
with the Spaniard one of the frontrunners
to replace Manchester United-bound David Moyes at Everton.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan said he would not stand in the way of Martinez if he wanted to leave but
remained optimistic he would stay
with the FA Cup winners despite their relegation to the Championship.
So after another 38 game season this is how the table stood at the end of the 2012/2013 season:
|
|
|
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
|
|
|
| 2 |
 |
(2) |
Manchester City |
38 |
23 |
9 |
6 |
66 |
34 |
32 |
78 |
| 3 |
|
(3) |
Chelsea |
38 |
22 |
9 |
7 |
75 |
39 |
36 |
75 |
| 4 |
|
(4) |
Arsenal |
38 |
21 |
10 |
7 |
72 |
37 |
35 |
73 |
| 5 |
|
(5) |
Tottenham Hotspur |
38 |
21 |
9 |
8 |
66 |
46 |
20 |
72 |
| 6 |
|
(6) |
Everton |
38 |
16 |
15 |
7 |
55 |
40 |
15 |
63 |
| 7 |
|
(7) |
Liverpool |
38 |
16 |
13 |
9 |
71 |
43 |
28 |
61 |
| 8 |
|
(8) |
West Bromwich Albion |
38 |
14 |
7 |
17 |
53 |
57 |
-4 |
49 |
| 9 |
|
(9) |
Swansea City |
38 |
11 |
13 |
14 |
47 |
51 |
-4 |
46 |
| 10 |
|
(10) |
West Ham United |
38 |
12 |
10 |
16 |
45 |
53 |
-8 |
46 |
| 11 |
|
(12) |
Norwich City |
38 |
10 |
14 |
14 |
41 |
58 |
-17 |
44 |
| 12 |
|
(15) |
Fulham |
38 |
11 |
10 |
17 |
50 |
60 |
-10 |
43 |
| 13 |
|
(11) |
Stoke City |
38 |
9 |
15 |
14 |
34 |
45 |
-11 |
42 |
| 14 |
|
(14) |
Southampton |
38 |
9 |
14 |
15 |
49 |
60 |
-11 |
41 |
| 15 |
|
(16) |
Aston Villa |
38 |
10 |
11 |
17 |
47 |
69 |
-22 |
41 |
| 16 |
|
(13) |
Newcastle United |
38 |
11 |
8 |
19 |
45 |
68 |
-23 |
41 |
| 17 |
|
(17) |
Sunderland |
38 |
9 |
12 |
17 |
41 |
54 |
-13 |
39 |
| 18 |
|
(18) |
Wigan Athletic |
38 |
9 |
9 |
20 |
47 |
73 |
-26 |
36 |
| 19 |
|
(19) |
Reading |
38 |
6 |
10 |
22 |
43 |
73 |
-30 |
28 |
| 20 |
|
(20) |
Queens Park Rangers |
38 |
4 |
13 |
21 |
30 |
60 |
-30 |
25 |
