A hat trick by Olivier Giroud ensured that Arsenal finished second, above London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.
The Gunners defeated relegated Aston Villa 4-0 with three Giroud goals in the 5th, 79th and 80th minute capped by a Mark Bunn own goal in the 90th.
Tottenham went into the final match day of the 2015/16 season needing just a draw to finish second but Spurs who were title contenders a fortnight earlier collapsed 5-1 away to relegated Newcastle United.
The Gunners keep their bragging rights as they maintained the record of not finishing below Spurs in Premier League history.
Arsenal’s hat-trick hero Olivier Giroud said; “We were hoping to finish in top three but to finish second is very nice. We are really pleased to finish second and hopefully next year we can grab one more place.
“We wanted to start strongly, we knew it wouldn’t be easy and we thought Villa would fight, and they did well. But we were efficient up front and could have scored 3 or 4 more.”
Meanwhile, in other EPL final day matches, Champions Leicester City drew 1-1 at Chelsea as they win the title by 10 points.
Manchester City also finished in fourth place and secured Champions League football with a 1-1 draw away to Swansea.
Southampton defeated Crystal Palace 4-1 to move into fifth position but may be knocked out of it by Manchester United. Nevertheless, they have secured Europa League football for next season even if they end up in sixth.
West Ham have their ambition to play in Europe dented after losing away to Stoke City 2-1 courtesy a Mame Biram Diouf late strike.
Their fate is now solely dependent on the result of the FA Cup between Manchester United and Crystal Palace. If Man-U beat Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final a Europa League place filters down to seventh. If Palace win they are in the Europa League at the group stage.
Everton end the season on a high with 3-0 win against Norwich City, while West Brom and Liverpool played 1-1.
Results
Chelsea 1-1 Leicester
Arsenal 4-0 Aston Villa
Watford 2-2 Sunderland
Swansea 1-1 Manchester City
Everton 3-0 Norwich
West Brom 1-1 Liverpool
Newcastle 5-1 Tottenham
Southampton 4 – 1 Crystal Palace
Stoke City 2 – 1 West Ham United
