Arsenal ended their Premiership season on a high note with a 1-0 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. The Gunners could have been the winners this season had they hung on to what appeared to be an impregnable seven-point lead in February.

The final game of the season started on a good note for the home side with Carlos Edwards almost giving them a lead after 14 seconds, but Lukasz Fabianski was on hand to parry away his volley.

The game was played out at a leisurely pace with neither team having any incentive to press forward. Sunderland had already secured their Premiership safety in earlier games and Arsenal were firmly positioned on the third place in the Premier League table.

Sunderland keeper Marton Fulop was on hand to deny Emmanuel Adebayor after six minutes. However Arsenal did take the lead after 24 minutes when England winger Theo Walcott who was able to latch onto Gilberto's excellent pass that left the Sunderland defence powerless.

Sunderland did not let the goal break them down and played flowing football creating plenty of chances. Roy Keane will be worried that his side has lacked the killer punch; perhaps this is an area he could bolster in the summer.

Philippe Senderos and Theo Walcott had two golden chances to kill the game, but the former hit the bar and the latter fluffed it from within six yards.

O'Donovan came on for Jones for the Black Cats and created a couple of wonderful chances to pull level, but was unable to put the finishing touch. Although they created a flurry of half-chances in the latter part of the game, Sunderland were unable to get the crucial goal and had to resign themselves to the loss.