Arsenal played Newcastle in their last fixture of the season at St.James Park and  managed to secure a deserved 1-0 victory to ensure Champions League Football next season. It was a crucial game for the Gunners and they managed to scrape through against a much improved Newcastle side.

Arsene Wenger decided to start with Mikel Arteta after the midfielder passed a late fitness test, but was subbed early in the game. The first half saw Arsenal starting strongly in the first few minutes only to be dominated by a hard working side during the later parts of the half, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain came on for Arteta in the 28th minute and provided some much needed pace in midfield, Newcastle were to able to defend against the Arsenal threat from the wings and managed to create a few chances of their own aided by the pace of their wingbacks Yanga-Mbiwa and Debuchy.

Arsenal was successful in keeping their hopes of getting into the Champions League alive by beating Wigan 4-1 at the Emirates stadium on Tuesday night. Sadly for Wigan this meant that the Latics became the first team in history to win the FA Cup and be relegated in the same season. Wigan’s defence was punished by the merciless Gunners to push them into the second tier football for the next season.

Arsenal were looking for an early goal and they got one in the 11th minute courtesy of a Lukas Podolski header, Wigan equalised in the 44th minute from a brilliantly struck Shaun Maloney free kick to lift the spirits of the fans who were clearly overjoyed from the FA Cup triumph.

A disappointing goal-less draw between Arsenal and Everton at the Emirates on Tuesday night hampered both teams' chances of Champions League football next season as the dropped points means it is now very much advantage Chelsea and Tottenham. Everton were good value for their point, out-muscling the Gunners for the better part of the first hour before tired legs took their toll on both teams in a match that saw very few chances created. The best of the opportunities on the night came the way of Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud, who lacked the quality to put the ball in the back of the net. Everton though could consider themselves rather lucky as Darron Gibson should have been sent off in the first half for body checking a rampaging Theo Walcott when already on a yellow, with the inexperience of Referee Neil Swarbrick probably costing Arsenal the game.

Arsenal made three changes to the side that edged out Norwich at the weekend with Per Mertesacker coming straight back into the side after completing his one game suspension, while much maligned young Pole Wojciech Szczesny was recalled due to a rib injury to the very much in form Lukasz Fabianski. Arsenal also brought Theo Walcott in for the hit and miss Gervinho  on the right flank. The other big decisions by Wenger was sticking with his young English duo of Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs when he had two in form players in Tomas Rosicky and Nacho Monreal available on the bench.

In a shocking rumour, Arsenal forward Lukas Podolski has been linked with a move away from the Emirates less than year after he moved to the North London club. The Sun reports that Italian giants Juventus and Spanish side Atletico Madrid are confident that they could persuade Podolski to switch again after the German international has been benched by Arsene Wenger in recent games. It is believed that Juventus are willing to spend as much as 15 million pounds on the German, who was bought in the summer for just 10 million pounds from his boyhood club FC Koln.

Despite Podolski having scored 13 goals for the Gunners this season, he has turned out to be Arsenal’s most substituted player. He averages a little over 64 minutes per game this season in 25 appearances in the Premier League which has led many to believe that Wenger is not happy with the German’s work-rate.

Andre Villas-Boas secured the biggest win of his Tottenham career so far as Spurs earned a hugely significant 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the North-London derby at White Hart Lane. The momentous victory for Spurs sees them move to within two points of Manchester City in 2^nd place and more importantly, leaves Arsenal seven points adrift in 5^th place. The pre-match hype surrounded one particular individual from Wales and Gareth Bale stamped his name across the derby by scoring the opener 37 minutes in. Aaron Lennon added the other a few minutes later in similar fashion as Arsenal’s parody of an offside trap was exploited to the core.

The Gunners managed to claw their way back in the 2^nd half courtesy of Per Mertesacker’s goal in the 51^st minute. But Arsene Wenger’s side ran out of ideas as the half progressed, with Spurs the ones creating the better opportunities. Wenger has never finished below Spurs during his long reign at Arsenal but times they are indeed a-changing in North-London as a shift in power is nigh.

Gareth Bale has been ruling the roost in North-London this season, winning game after game for Tottenham Hotspur in their bid to secure a Champions League spot. As a result, Tottenham’s local rivals Arsenal are in the chasing pack for a change, with four points separating the two sides at the moment. But Arsene Wenger doesn’t seem to have any regrets over missing out on Bale all those years ago when Theo Walcott was chosen ahead of the Welshman.

The two wingers were rising through the ranks at a rapid rate in Southampton and Arsenal cherry-picked Walcott. Wenger isn’t spending sleepless nights over what might have been if he had signed Bale from the south-coast as he told the BBC: “At some stage, we were on about taking the two if possible. But we could get Walcott and I am very happy we got him. You'd be amazed by the number of players we should have signed. Every club misses players.”

Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud had been relegated to the bench for a brief period this season to give Theo Walcott an opportunity to play in a central striker's position. Giroud had made just one start in December and the new year also started on a slow note for the Frenchman, leaving him frustrated on several occasions.

The 26 year-old was quoted by ESPN Soccernet as saying, "It's true. I had a bad run in front of goal, and there were all the discussions concerning the contract extension of Walcott, who wanted to play through the middle. Then we played Newcastle with that 7-3 win. I came off the bench 15 minutes from time, scored twice and just missed out on a hat-trick. But it's better now."