Arsenal are one game away from a place in the history books after a 1-0 defeat of London rivals Fulham on Sunday.
If the champions avoid defeat against relegated Leicester at Highbury on Saturday they will become the first side to go through an entire league campaign unbeaten since Preston North End’s ”Invincibles” achieved the feat in a 12-team top flight in 1888-89.
While Arsenal were clearing the decks for a massive end-of-season party, Newcastle’s hopes of ending the campaign with something to celebrate took a massive knock when they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Wolves.
The significance of the result is simple: Newcastle must beat Southampton on Wednesday and Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday to claim fourth place and the final qualifying spot for next season’s Champions League.
”It’s a disappointing result, but we’ve got two games left and we have to think we can still do it,” said Newcastle manager Sir Bobby Robson.
Newcastle’s misery was compounded by the manner in which they dropped two crucial points, captain Alan Shearer having a late penalty saved by Wolves goalkeeper Paul Jones.
Since clinching the title with four games to spare, Arsenal have failed to reproduce the kind of form that has made them so difficult to beat.
But they have kept grinding out the results with the help of some good fortune and it was a similar story at Loftus Road on Sunday.
”Fulham really wanted to beat us and on a difficult pitch we had problems keeping the ball well and to be dangerous,” Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger admitted after the match.
”But I feel that the players at the moment refuse to lose without really being at their top. We are just doing what is needed and not more and of couse some heads are directed towards the European championships.”
Wenger said he did not believe his players fully realised what a momentous achievement it would be to finish the season unbeaten.
But he was confident they would not stumble at the final hurdle.
”We are 90 minutes away from it. We will prepare well and we will give everything at Highbury. We have a very good chance.”
Fulham were by far the livelier of the two sides but they paid a heavy price for a moment of madness from their goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
After receiving a ninth-minute backpass, the Dutch international inexplicably attempted to dribble the ball past Jose Antonio Reyes right in front of his own goal.
The execution failed to match the ambition and Reyes easily took the ball off him before tapping into an empty net.
Fulham expended plenty of energy in pursuit of a draw in their final home match before they return to their own Craven Cottage ground, but neither side carved out any real chances in an encounter that had a distinctly listless air.
Things could not have been more different at St James’ Park where Newcastle must have thought the three points were in the bag when a Paul Ince push on Gary Speed gave them an 83rd-minute penalty.
But Jones threw himself full-length to his right to deny Shearer and the Magpies had to leave the pitch to the jeers of their own supporters.
Jones’s save capped a stirring comeback from the visitors, for whom Romanian international Viorel Ganea scored a 70th-minute equaliser to cancel out Lee Bowyer’s first half strike. – Sapa-AFP