Newcastle United 0 Arsenal 1

ALMOST 50,000 Newcastle United fans made sure an emotional Steve Harper received a send off to remember, but his final outing at St James' Park was not quite as perfect as he would have hoped.

Harper was tearful before, during and after his 199th and last appearance for the club he joined in 1993 after receiving a spine-tingling reception from the fans in the stands all around.

There was to be no clean sheet to savour, though, nor a winning finale for the well-liked shot-stopper from Easington, as Arsenal clinched the victory which secured Champions League football for the 16th consecutive campaign.

Laurent Koscielny's close-range volley beyond Harper shortly after half-time proved decisive as it meant the Gunners finished the Premier League season in fourth ahead of North London rivals Tottenham, who beat Sunderland.

Once the celebrations of those in Arsenal shirts had died down in front of the Leazes End and Harper - along with his three children - had gone to the centre of the pitch to say farewell, Newcastle's players returned for their own lap of appreciation to the fans. It would be wrong to call it anything other than that because the final whistle brought an end to a frustrating campaign.

There is nothing satisfying about finishing in 16th place, with the worst defensive record in the club's Premier League history; except purely the relief of knowing top-flight football will be played on Tyneside again next season when Harper will be at pastures new.

Now Pardew must sit down with owner Mike Ashley and managing director Derek Llambias to plot a way through the summer and try to come up with a plan that ensure there is no repeat of this season's fight to avoid relegation.

Harper might not have been able to savour a clean sheet on his swansong, but he was handed the captaincy. It is almost unheard of these days for a player to serve 20 years at the same club, particularly when for the vast majority of that time he has merely been on the periphery playing back-up to the likes of Shay Given and Tim Krul.

With chants of 'there's only one Steve Harper ' reverberating around St James', he was left in no doubt about the appreciation and affection there is for him and he looked emotional before a ball had even been kicked.

His farewell outing was could have been a busier one against an Arsenal team determined to hold on to fourth place in the Premier League, so he needed to concentrate on his last performance for the club.

The Gunners, whose gamble to risk Mikel Arteta in the middle with a hamstring problem backfired when he had to be replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the first half, had taken 23 points in the last nine matches to leapfrog North London neighbours Tottenham in the race for a Champions League spot.

Such form was clearly a worry for Newcastle, although with top-flight status already preserved following the win at Queens Park Rangers a week earlier the anxiety and tension which had been around for defeats to Sunderland and Liverpool had been lifted.

It meant the atmosphere was a relaxed one, with an end of season feel the perfect platform for Harper to really enjoy the occasion.

And with goalscoring chances limited in the opening 45 minutes, the highlight was the emotional applause Harper, wearing his No 37 shirt, received in the 37th minute from all corners of St James' Park. The tribute pulled on the 38-year-old's heart-strings and left him in tears yet he somehow maintained composure to show good handling and strong distribution throughout with the sort of professionalism which has kept him at the Tyneside club for the best part of two decades.

With the exception of him denying Lukas Podolski, who would have been offside anyway, Newcastle's defending was of the standard to prevent Arsenal from breaking behind the defence too often.

On the one occasion a gap did occur before the break, Theo Walcott could only direct a dipping volley over the bar from 14 yards when he should have hit the target.

In fact the two best chances of the half went to Newcastle. Striker Papiss Cisse was unlucky with the first when his first time shot on the turn failed to test Wojciech Szczesny after some good play down the left from Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa.

And the other was when Hatem Ben Arfa's trickery got him inside Kieran Gibbs before his left foot drive flew over the bar. Ben Arfa, whose preference to take the difficult option almost caught Newcastle out a couple of times, was the main source of supply.

Immediately after the restart Harper was finally tested. When Walctott was fed in to space down Newcastle's left, his low shot towards the far corner had to be well stopped by the goalkeeper's strong right arm.

There was greater purpose about Arsenal's play and when Cabaye conceded a free-kick near to the corner flag six minutes after half-time, the visitors got the break through their 3,200 travelling fans craved.

Walcott's free-kick was headed goalwards by Podolski and then Koscielny coasted in front of Harper to hit a volley which shaved the goalkeeper's face on its way through to the net.

After that Arsenal probed without posing Harper too many more questions, while Newcastle occasionally counter-attacked and threatened to level.

With the exception of a Ben Arfa strike from 25 yards that flew over, Arsenal's defensive unit of Per Mertesacker and Koscielny were largely unbroken and made it difficult for the lone presence of Cisse.

There was a late penalty call waved away by referee Howard Webb when Mathieu Debuchy appeared to be pulled down as word filtered through of a Tottenham winner in North London and Walcott then ran through and hit the post, but Arsenal had already done enough.

That did not stop Harper from enjoying his moment after the final whistle.