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Newcastle and Middlesbrough relegated in English Premier League

Newcastle and Middlesbrough were relegated from the Premier League on Sunday, while Hull and Sunderland stayed up.

Newcastle lost 1-0 at Aston Villa and Middlesbrough was beaten 2-1 at West Ham to finish in the last three teams on the final day of the league season.

Hull lost 1-0 to newly crowned champion Manchester United and Sunderland went down 3-2 at home to third-place Chelsea.

Last-place West Bromwich Albion was already certain to go down and drew 0-0 at Blackburn.

In Sunday's other games, Arsenal outplayed Stoke 4-1, Liverpool beat Tottenham 3-1, Everton won 2-0 at Fulham, Manchester City edged Bolton 1-0 and Wigan beat Portsmouth 1-0.

The goal that sent Newcastle down for the first time in 20 years came in the 38th minute at Villa Park where a shot from Gareth Barry took a deflection off Magpies midfielder Damien Duff and flew past his own goalkeeper.

"The worst feelings. It's painful, it hurts," said Alan Shearer, the former Newcastle striker who returned to the club to take the manager's job for the last eight games of the season, winning only one. "It's been a great experience for me but we've got no complaints. I can't say we were unlucky in the season. We went down because we weren't good enough over 38 games. Big changes have to be made at the football club.

"We've conceded too many goals, not created enough.... That's been a problem all season."

That own goal took the pressure off Hull, which started the game a point ahead of Newcastle and faced a Man United lineup missing most of its stars because manager Sir Alex Ferguson decided to rest them ahead of Wednesday's Champions League final against Barcelona in Rome.

Darron Gibson scored United's 24th minute winner with a long range strike as United finished the season with 90 points, four more than Liverpool.

Next-to-last Middlesbrough needed a big victory at West Ham but finished with a defeat. Carlton Cole fired the Hammers ahead in the 33rd minute and, although Gary O'Neil equalized in the 50th, Junior Stanislas scored West Ham's winner in the 58th.

Sunderland fell behind to Nicolas Anelka's 47th minute strike only for Kieran Richardson to equalize six minutes later. Goals by Salomon Kalou and Ashley Cole put Chelsea in control at the stadium of Light and Kenwyne Jones's 90th minute reply for Sunderland made it 3-2.

When news of the other results came through, celebrations started at both Hull and Sunderland although Ricky Sbragia announced that he had quit as manager. Sunderland finished 16th with 36 points, Hull 35, Newcastle 34 and both Middlesbrough and West Brom had 32.

Robin van Persie scored twice as fourth place Arsenal romped into a 4-1 lead in the first 41 minutes at the Emirates Stadium and Fernando Torres fired the first as Liverpool beat Spurs at Anfield. Robbie Keane netted Tottenham's reply against the side that sold him back to his old club and decided not to celebrate the goal with his teammates.

Leon Osman scored Everton's two at Fulham, Felipe Caicedo fired Man City's winner against neighbour Bolton and Hugo Rodallega's goal was enough for Wigan to beat Portsmouth.
Canadian Press


Totti winner ruins Maldini's San Siro farewell

Paolo Maldini's last match for AC Milan at San Siro ended in a 3-2 loss to AS Roma on Sunday, with the 40-year-old defender's side beaten by Francesco Totti's late free kick.

Maldini, who made his Milan debut as a gangly 16-year-old substitute back in 1985, has won a string of trophies including seven Italian league titles and five European Cups with the club.

But there was no happy ending in front of the home fans as his side twice had to equalize before finally being beaten by Totti's free kick in the 85th minute.

John Arne Riise opened the scoring for Roma just before halftime, but Massimo Ambrosini brought Milan level in the 75th.

Jeremy Menez restored Roma's lead five minutes later, Ambrosini drew Milan level again, but Totti stepped up to score the winner.

Ambrosini, who had kept his side in the game, was then sent off two minutes from time for arguing with referee Andrea De Marco.

Milan's last game of the season takes Maldini and his teammates to Fiorentina next weekend.

Newly-crowned champion Inter Milan lost 3-1 at Cagliari, while Alessandro Del Piero scored twice as Juventus beat Siena 3-0 in new coach Ciro Ferrara's first game in charge of the Turin club.

Inter leads with 81 points, Milan and third-place Juventus both have 71, whilst Fiorentina in fourth has 68 after a 1-1 draw at Lecce.

It was Roma who made the better start at San Siro and Mirko Vucinic set Rodrigo Taddei up early on, but the Brazilian winger's shot was weak and goalkeeper Dida pushed the ball away for a corner.

In Milan's defence, Maldini was relatively comfortable and even joined in the attack on occasions.

But there was nothing he could do to stop Roma opening the lead just before halftime, when fullback Riise blasted in a freekick from the edge of the area.

Clarence Seedorf came on for David Beckham at halftime to sharpen the attack, but it wasn't until the further introductions of Ronaldinho and Gianluca Zambrotta that Milan came to life.

Kaka had a shot and a header pushed away, but from his cross Filippo Inzaghi shot, Doni failed to hold the ball and Ambrosini fired home the rebound.

Roma substitute Menez then put the visitors back in the lead, dribbling past Giuseppe Favalli to shoot low past Dida, but a minute later Milan was level again as Ambrosini poked home Kaka's low cross.

Once Totti had scored his freekick, Milan became more and more desperate and it was whilst arguing with the referee for a penalty that hadn't been given that Ambrosini received his second booking.

"It was a one-off match and I'm pleased with the way the team played and applied themselves," Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said. "The important thing is that today the team showed that they can play when they have the right preparation in the week.

"The boys knew they had to concentrate, despite everything else going on around them today. They showed great professionalism."

Juventus comfortably beat Siena to move level on points with Milan.

Del Piero and Claudio Marchisio scored in the first half and Del Piero added his second from a free kick to give Ferrara winning start after being appointed coach on Monday.

"It couldn't have gone any better, it has been an intense week, but we had a good preparation and I have to thank the players for the way they applied themselves," Ferrara said.

"I gambled on Alex and he did well, scoring two goals for me. I needed a bit of help from my captain."

All matches on Sunday were preceded by a minute's silence for a 19-year-old Vicenza fan who died overnight after falling six meters from a barrier during his side's 4-0 loss at Parma.

Also Sunday, it was: Atalanta 2, Palermo 2; Catania 3, Napoli 1; Chievo Verona 0, Bologna 0; Sampdoria 2, Udinese 2; and Torino 2, Genoa 3. Canadian Press