Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has praised the "exceptional" season of Leicester City after the Gunners snuck into second place behind the Foxes.
The Gunners started the final day of the Premier League season two points behind North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in second but turned it around by winning 4-0 against rockbottom Aston Villa as Spurs remarkably went down 5-1 at 10-man Newcastle United.
Wenger, who maintains his record of finishing above Spurs in all 19 of his years in charge of Arsenal, was quick to pay tribute to Leicester and their first-ever top-flight title.
"You have to say Leicester have been exceptional – they lost only three games," Wenger told reporters. "It's not only us who are behind them and we have beaten them twice.
"We are second in the league and we wanted to be first, but you cannot say first is good and all the rest is rubbish. We have made over 70 points and in the Premier League that's not easy.
"We don't start the season thinking we want to finish above Tottenham, we start the season thinking we want to win the league. For a while we believed we could do it, but I think we kept going until the end. The only target before the game was to finish second and we achieved it, so at least today the supporters had some satisfaction."
Arsenal's second-place finish is their highest for 11 years.
Pascal Lemesre
