Weekend In Review Says Goodbye To Newcastle: 5/25

Arsenal 4-1 Stoke City

Arsene Wenger's side finished their fourth consecutive trophy-free season with a strong victory.

Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle

Farewell, Newcastle United. If there is any more fitting way to go down after an abysmal season from start to finish, it's on an own goal. It's going to take a lot of luck, among other things, for you to make your way back up, considering some pundits seem to see your situation as "the next Leeds".

Blackburn 0-0 West Bromwich Albion

This match had no stakes, no goals and a Blackburn red card. That is all.

Fulham 0-2 Everton

Everton took victory with a Leon Osman brace when all Fulham essentially needed was a draw to secure the final Europa League spot in seventh.

Hull City 0-1 Manchester United

For a portion of the first hald, the Tigers trailed in this match while Newcastle were holding to a draw, and it looked like doom for Phil Brown's boys. Unless they work to improve the team in the offseason, they may be looking at approaching Derby County's '07-'08 level of ineptitude. It's not often a team can get one win from the final 22 league games and still survive.

Liverpool 3-1 Tottenham

Liverpool secured second place with the victory and denied Spurs a spot in the Europa League, which was theirs for the taking with Fulham's loss.

Manchester City 1-0 Bolton

City finish in the top half of the league with victory, though they ended with the most goals allowed of any top half team. Offseason plan: spend more of their ridiculous quadrillions on defenders, less on overrated Brazilians.

Sunderland 2-3 Chelsea

Congrats to Nicolas Anelka for winning the Golden Boot by scoring his 19th of the campaign. Congrats also to Sunderland, who survived the relegation battle, mostly thanks to all the bottom five teams losing on the final day.

West Ham United 2-0 Middlesbrough

Boro needed a massive miracle to remain in the top flight, and they were unable to conjure it. I had no idea they had been in the Prem each of the last 11 seasons, though, since it seems like they're in the relegation fight every year. (Quick research: Boro won the League Cup in 2004, their only major trophy in club history, and followed it up the next year with a seventh place league finish, the best of their run. Average finishing position: 12th)

Wigan 1-0 Portsmouth

Championship Promotion Playoff Final:

Sheffield United 0-1 Burnley

A 13th minute strike by Wade Elliott put Burnley into the top flight for the first time in 33 years.

Elsewhere:

In Germany, it was all Wolfsburg in their final match against Werder Bremen, as they clinched their first ever Bundesliga championship with a 5-1 victory in front of their home fans.

In Spain and Italy, the leagues are over, so who gives a shit?

Goal(s) Of The Week(Year):
Edin Dzeko and Grafite's tandem work for Wolfsburg in a championship season...


Midweek Action:

It's Champions League Final time, people. Barcelona vs. Manchester United in Rome. More to come on this here site about that one.

With the Spanish and Italian leagues being anticlimactic, this will be the final appearance of Weekend In Review until August. Worry not, I'm sure there will be plenty of transfer rumors to comment on in the coming months (even a few that aren't ridiculous rumors of everyone on the planet going to Real Madrid!), as well as the occasional qualifier for next year's World Cup.