Arsenal march on

Champions Arsenal moved within one game of completing an unbeaten Premier League season as Spanish striker Jose Antonio Reyes earned them a 1-0 win at Fulham on Sunday. But Newcastle United’s chances of joining them in next season’s Champions League were left hanging by a thread after they were held to a 1-1 home draw by relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Newcastle, knocked out of the UEFA Cup semi-finals by Olympique Marseille on Thursday, need to win their final two premier league games — at Southampton on Wednesday and at Liverpool on Saturday — to finish fourth. Bobby Robson’s team, with only two away league wins all season, trail Liverpool by five points and could even miss out on fifth and a UEFA Cup place as they are also two behind Aston Villa, who host Manchester United in their final game. The result also made mathematically certain that Wolves would be relegated after one season in the top flight.

Arsenal’s success at Loftus Road took them to 87 points, 11 clear of Chelsea, and meant they at least matched their record of 1991 when they lost once on the way to the title. f they avoid defeat in Saturday’s home game against relegated Leicester City they would become only the second team in history to complete an unbeaten top-flight season. Preston North End managed it in the Football League’s inaugural season in 1888-89, but that was a campaign of just 22 matches.