A superb strike from Declan Rice ended our 2024/25 home campaign on a high as we beat Newcastle United and secure our spot in next season's Champions League.
We had David Raya to thank for keeping us level at the break after he made a string of outstanding saves to keep third-placed Newcastle at bay, but we were much improved after the break and Rice netted on 55 minutes to pave our way to victory.
Ending a four-game search for a home win was the perfect way to sign off our season in north London this term, and means a point in our final game of the season against Southampton would be enough to sew up second spot next week.
Raya to the rescue
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The Magpies arrived in north London looking for the three points that would secure their return to the Champions League, and had it not been for David Raya’s heroics in goal, the travelling Toon Army could have got their passports ready early doors.
He was first tested five minutes in when his loose clearance led to a sight of goal for Bruno Guimaraes but our number one redeemed himself with a good save before producing some excellent reflexes to also scoop the rebound away, and then he had to deal with a tame Tino Livramento shot after the full-back found himself at the end of a counter-attack.
Having been pinned back, we threw a couple of punches ourselves with Leandro Trossard seeing a curler deflect just wide of the far post, and then only an instinctive stop from Nick Pope prevented Thomas Partey from heading in the resulting corner.
But that was brief respite as Harvey Barnes charged through the middle of pitch and saw his low shot clip Partey and trickle towards the bottom corner but a full-stretch Raya edged it around the post, and then on 18 minutes he made a superb double stop, pushing away a Dan Burn header from point-blank range and then hacking Sven Botman’s follow-up off his goalline.
Our overworked goalkeeper was given some respite from that point onwards as we stemmed the tide of attacks without creating anything dangerous ourselves. A Declan Rice long-ranger, which was comfortable for Pope, was the only thing we could muster before the half-time whistle, as we returned to the changing rooms relieved to have weathered the storm.
Rice rips one
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And having hung in there, we started the second half much brighter and managed to get in front 10 minutes after the restart. Anthony Gordon was caught in possession by Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard squared the ball to Rice.
In a similar fashion to his goal at Manchester United a couple of months ago, he whipped a fierce first-time blast from 20 yards towards goal and watched it whizz past Pope and into the far corner to net his ninth of an incredible personal campaign.
That boosted the positivity and noise levels around our home, and we continued to push Newcastle backwards in pursuit of a second, which nearly arrived when Ben White saw the ball sit up nicely and drove it towards the bottom corner, but miscued by fractions, and the feel-good factor cranked up another notch when Kai Havertz was introduced to the bench after three-and-a-half months out.
Having seen all the first-half threat fizzle out after the restart, Newcastle attempted to regain parity and Barnes hooked a shot over from a good central position before being subbed for ex-Gunner Joe Willock, who also flashed an effort off-target after wriggling free in the area.
But unlike his early exploits, Raya wasn’t troubled in the second half and and we were able to send our supporters home happy by gaining some revenge over the Tynesiders for our previous meetings this season, and keep up our incredible record of only losing one of our last 28 home league finales.
What's next
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We round off our campaign with our 58th and final game when we head to St Mary's Stadium on Sunday, May 25 to face already-relegated Southampton before the squad breaks up the summer.
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