Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger refused to revel in Spurs’ downfall after his side finished second place on the final day of the season.
At the start of the day, the Gunners needed to beat Aston Villa and hope relegated Newcastle did similar against Spurs at St James’ Park.
And as Olivier Giroud got his first Premier League hat-trick in the 4-0 win, news filtered around the Emirates that Mauricio Pochettino’s side were losing, with the result eventually finishing 5-1.
It means Wenger keeps up his record of finishing above their north London rivals every year since he arrived in 1996.
But the Frenchman was reluctant to take too much joy in finishing the season higher than Spurs.
He said: “We finished second in the league but we wanted to be first.
“We want to win more.
“We don’t start the season thinking we want to finish above Tottenham, we start the season thinking we want to win the league. For a while we believed we could do it.
“But I think we kept going until the end. The only target before the game was to finish second and we achieved it, so at least today the supporters had some satisfaction.”
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