WENGER HOPES TO SIGN OUT ON A HIGH FROM HOME
Brighton, May 5: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho took aim at his players for not having the required desire in a 1- 0 defeat to Brighton on Friday that secured the Seagulls’ place in the Premier League next season.
Just over two weeks ahead of the FA Cup final against his old club Chelsea, United boss Mourinho made six changes and was punished as Pascal Gross’s second- half header secured Brighton’s first win over the Red Devils since 1982.
Chants of “We are staying up” rang around a packed house at the Amex Stadium at full- time as victory moved Brighton up to 11th and more importantly eight points clear of the bottom three.
With third- bottom Southampton and 17thplaced Swansea to meet on Tuesday, Brighton now can’t now be relegated.
“I felt that we’ve deserved to stay in this league for our season’s work,” said Brighton boss Chris Hughton.
“But if we’d lost today and the next two, it would have been a real feeling of injustice had we gone down. So relief that we’ve done it now, but I’m also really proud of a group of players.”
By contrast, defeat means United must wait to secure second as they remain five points clear of Liverpool with Spurs a London, May 5: Arsene Wenger will bid farewell to a stadium he helped to build in more ways than one when he leads Arsenal at the Emirates for the final time at home to Burnley on Sunday.
Wenger’s final season after 22 years in charge is destined to end in disappointment after Thursday’s Europa League semi- final exit to Atletico Madrid. Sixth- placed Arsenal are already out of the running for a top- four finish, and could even finish below their visitors this weekend in seventh with a poor return from Wenger’s final three games in charge.
Tributes will be paid to the Frenchman at full- time on Sunday with Arsenal’s players even embarking on an end of season lap of honour. Once again, though, it will be a parade without a trophy as it often has been since Arsenal moved to the Emirates in 2006.
The success Wenger produced in his first decade at the club, winning two doubles and ‘ The Invincibles’ unbeaten season on course to another Premier League triumph in 2003/ 04, created the demand to move to a 60,000- capacity stadium from Highbury. While the Emirates was intended to give Arsenal the financial resources in to compete with Europe’s elite, it significantly hampered the club to challenge them in the short term.