A devastating spell of bowling from Stuart Broad tore through the New Zealand batting line-up on day four and snuffed out any hopes the tourists had of going 1-0 up in the two-Test series. Broad had looked wayward in the first innings as he struggled to find the right length with which to attack the Kiwi batsmen, but he emerged as England’s most potent threat at the start of the second innings. Ably supported by Jimmy Anderson, who took a back seat having led the attack on days two and three, Broad showed why he has been preferred to Steven Finn as an opening bowler. When Anderson and Broad are in this form, having Finn as a first change and the likes of Tim Bresnan, Chris Tremlett and Graham Onions waiting in the wings looks like an embarrassment of riches. What is certain is that most will be called upon at some point during a punishing Ashes schedule which dominates the next nine months.

Batting line-up not set in stone

Nick Compton looked to have cemented his place at the top of the order with back-to-back hundreds on the recent tour of New Zealand but two failures in this Test – including a rash shot in the first innings – have raised doubts over whether he is the man to partner Alastair Cook in the forthcoming Ashes series. As Kevin Pietersen continues his rehabilitation, it will also be a concern that Jonny Bairstow is yet to take advantage of the opportunities he has been given, although we have seen glimpses of his ability such as his 95 against South Africa last year. Joe Root, who has been in sparkling form since the start of the county season, provided what was undoubtedly the highlight of England’s batting with scores of 40 and 71. He has taken to Test cricket like a duck to water, but England will not want to put too much pressure on him yet and he should be kept down the order. His partnership with Jonathan Trott in the second innings was crucial in the context of a low-scoring match; doing the same in an Ashes Test normally represents a far greater challenge, but the maturity he has shown in his career to date bodes well for the future.

New Zealand have raw materials

A 170-run margin of defeat inside four days does not reflect well on New Zealand, but in reality this was a gripping and close-fought Test match that only became one sided once Broad hit his stride during the visitors’ run chase. In the first innings, it was Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson who bettered anything their English counterparts could muster, but the second innings collapse showed that there is still a lot of work to be done if a group of talented players is going to produce results. In the reverse series earlier this year, New Zealand were unable to force victory having on more than one occasion put themselves in a strong position. In both instances, in Dunedin and Auckland respectively, it was their bowlers who were unable to take the wickets required. This time it was the batsmen who failed to deliver, but captain Brendon McCullum and the coaching staff should not lose sight of the fact that several times in this match, their team fought back and ensured that they had a chance, albeit a wasted one, to win the Test.

Second Test important for hosts

Only one Test remains in this painfully short series (if it can even be called that), and as a result England will be looking to put in a far more consistent performance at Headingley. For the players involved in the Champions Trophy, the opportunities to impress in four and five-day cricket before the Ashes squad is announced will be few and far between, and the batsmen in particular will need to make each innings count in the second Test. For the bowlers, their most pressing concern will be avoiding injury. Finn will be keen to pick up a few wickets and cement his place in a three man pace attack, while Graeme Swann only bowled eight overs in the match. This may prove to be a blessing in disguise, as he has only just returned from elbow surgery. Along with Anderson and Broad they are likely to form the bowling attack for the first Test against Australia, one piece of the jigsaw that seems to be falling nicely into place.

The 31-year-old made nine substitute appearances in this season’s Premier League and Champions League, as well as two starts in the League Cup.

Gunners boss Arsène Wenger revealed last month that he expected the Russian to leave the club when his contract expires at the end of the season.

And the midfielder, who remains Arsenal’s record signing after joining from Zenit Saint Petersburg for £15m back in 2009, paid tribute to the Gunners via his Twitter account after their 1-0 win at Newcastle secured a fourth-place finish and Champions League qualification.

“Thanks a lot to all Arsenal fans, to all my team partners, who played with me all these years, to all the staff and coaches! Many thanks,” Arshavin wrote.

The Russian added: “Gunners! Good luck in the Champions League next year!”

Arshavin, who returned to Zenit on loan during the second part of last season, scored 31 goals in all competitions for Arsenal after joining the club in January 2009.

He has been linked with a move to La Liga side Sevilla in recent weeks but was also reported to be considering retirement.

Alexander Kacaniklic broke the deadlock in the 22nd minute to put the visitors ahead after the Swans dominated the first half.

Pablo Hernandez came close to equalising twice, but Dimitar Berbatov and Urby Emanuelson secured a rare away win for the Cottagers.

“I am ambitious like Fulham are, I want us to be in the top six, the top seven or the top eight,” Jol told BBC Sport.

“When I came here we had a fantastic team and we got 52 points, and look at where Swansea are today with 46 [ninth place in the table].

“We do not want to repeat this season, only getting around 40 points, but we need good players, ambitious players and that is what I want.

“If eight or nine players leave us this summer we will need five or six players.”

Meanwhile, Michael Laudrup admitted he was disappointed to end the club’s best season on a low note.

“It was disappointing, but the difference was us not taking our chances. “For 30 minutes in the second half we could have scored two or three. But I am sure in a couple of days I will see the big picture.

“Everyone here says it is the best season ever for this club. I have only been here 10 or 11 months so I will I trust their judgement.”

Nolan’s treble and a Ricardo Vaz Te strike helped sink the relegated Royals despite a brief fightback from the visitors, who had drawn level in the second half through Garath McCleary and Adam Le Fondre.

The Hammers’ victory secured a 10th-place finish for Sam Allardyce’s men in their first season back in the top flight.

And Nolan is keen to see Carroll, who spent the season on loan at the club from Liverpool, join the east London side on a permanent basis.

“To be honest, it’s up to him,” Nolan told West Ham’s website. “Anyone who has seen him around the place at close-quarters can see he enjoyed his time down here.

“We’re hoping that we it will become a permanent move, but if not I’m sure Sam will get to work and do what he does best and bring in the next-best option for us and we can move on from there.

“It’s going to be a long summer because we want to bring four or five new faces in who will make us better and more equipped for the Premier League and prepare us to get another good top-ten finish next year.”

The 24-year-old Roger Federer had already been No1 for more than two years, had 37 titles, nine of them Masters, seven of them Grand Slams.

He was about to play the young Spaniard Rafael Nadal who was still a month short of his 20th birthday, but he had already been No2 behind Federer for almost a year, owned 15 titles and was the reigning French Open and Rome champion.

That 2006 meeting in Rome was their fourth final in what would become 19 finals. They would go on to dominate not just Masters tournaments—Nadal and Federer top the list of all-time Masters titlists with 23 and 21 respectively—but also Grand Slams—they top the list of active players with 11 and 17 respectively.

But that 2006 final would encapsulate just how intense this rivalry would become. It took more than five hours and five sets for Nadal to prevail, having fended off two championship points, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Two other men stand at numbers one and two in the rankings and split the honours with Federer and Nadal in the current Grand Slams—but both went out of this year’s Rome Masters early, Andy Murray with injury, Novak Djokovic beaten in the quarter-finals.

And the No3 Swiss and No5 Spaniard have continued to make their presence felt. The Swiss last year compiled one of his finest ever seasons, reclaimed the No1 ranking, won six titles—among them Wimbledon and three Masters—and was runner-up at the World Tour Finals and the Olympics.

As for Nadal, he returned this February after seven months injured to reach eight consecutive finals in eight tournaments, reaffirming his mastery of the red clay with a staggering 30-2 win-loss rate this year.

Perhaps it’s little wonder that the Rome title, won by Nadal six times, is one of the few to elude Federer. As the Swiss pointed out before the match, “along with Bjorn Borg, he is the best mover on clay of all-time, so it’s hard to play against him.”

He could not have predicted just how hard.

It all started well enough: Federer won the toss and, as always, elected to serve. His very first shot was an ace, and he then made a serve and volley winner, holding his serve to 15. But from that moment on, it became Nadal’s story.

Federer seemed to struggle with both timing and pace while Nadal was pitch perfect—an early indication, perhaps, of the different schedule they had enjoyed during the week. This was Federer’s first day match in the hot sun, while Nadal had played his last three matches in these conditions. Federer later confirmed that the ball was flying more than it had in his previous matches, but quickly asserted that it was not the reason he lost the match.

Nadal pummelled to Federer’s backhand, slotted forehands down the line if Federer attempted to attack the net, and even got an early read on the Federer serve. He also made solid inroads with his own serve, a hugely underestimated shot in the men’s game. In the first set, Nadal dropped just two points on his own serve while Federer could manage only nine points from 22 on his.

Nadal broke in the third, held to love, broke again and held to love again. For good measure, he broke once more to take the set 6-1 in 24 minutes. In closing the set, he had won a remarkable 20 out of 25 points—and the crowd was stunned.

Federer found a couple of winners at the start of the second set, taking the first two points on Nadal’s serve, but having opened up the court with a deep return of serve, he netted an easy volley that would have brought up three break points.

Instead, Nadal closed him down, defended a break point, held serve and then immediately broke Federer to 15—helped by another netted Swiss volley.

Meanwhile, Nadal’s serve remained solid as he held to love but, 45 minutes after Federer won the opening game of the match, he won his second—though he still faced deuce.

Nadal’s 3-1 lead, however, quickly extended to 5-1 before Federer raised his level to break to love. Was this the beginning of a comeback? He did hold serve but could make no impression on Nadal’s next serve, and the Spaniard raced for home with an impressive love game and just eight unforced errors on the board, in a mere 68 minutes.

What had been almost a dead-heat the last time Nadal and Federer met in Rome had this time opened into a chasm, and Federer was in no doubt that the reason was Nadal’s superiority on clay.

“He’s clearly playing very well,” said the Swiss. “I’m happy for him that his comeback is working so well. He’s super consistent. He’s as strong as ever and probably favourite for the French Open, which he deserves.

“Clearly I’m not going to let him dictate play, but I just have to make sure next time I do a better job against him: I know I can.”

With the 41st clay title of his career, his 24th Masters title, his seventh in Rome, and equalling his best run on clay, the 31 wins he made in 2007, it is hard to see anyone stopping Nadal from making it eight in Paris, and he is even, by his usual standards, pretty upbeat about his own level.

“In Madrid I started to feel better about my forehand, my backhand, about the way that I want to play,” said Nadal.

“Here, in my opinion, I played only one bad match, against [Ernests] Gulbis, but I was there mentally and I won with a lot of fight—and the rest of the matches I played here, yesterday and today, I played at a very high level.”

And just to help his Roland Garros cause, he has already ensured he will be ranked back in the top four before the draw is made.

Federer leaves Rome in a relatively upbeat frame of mind. “It didn’t go the way I was hoping it would go, I missed too many easy forehands. [But] it’s been a good week for me. I’ve played pretty good tennis. Rafa was too good today for me to win.”

His first final of the year also puts on 600 points that will take him back into the race for London. A decent week’s work, then, after back problems in Indian Wells and a long break from the tour. He will, though, be keen to make a real statement in Paris.

Gareth Bale netted a late stunner to hand Tottenham a 1-0 win against Sunderland but it proved insufficient on the final day of the top-flight campaign, with Spurs having to settle for a Europa League spot again.

The rest of the league was also in action, as Manchester United played out a thrilling 5-5 draw at West Brom and Jamie Carragher ended his playing career with a 1-0 Liverpool win over QPR.

Here is a selection of our favourite tweets from the professionals, both past and present and in chronological order, after what was an entertaining climax to the Premier League season.

Former Arsenal defender Mikael Silvestre (‏@IamMSilvestre) can’t believe the quality of Gareth Bale’s goal: “Something of Kobe Bryant in Bale’s goal! Just give him the ball and he’ll produce. What an effort! #EPL Could we give a fourth spot champions league to Gareth Bale alone ? How much is Koscielny’s goal worth ? #AFC #EPL”

Tottenham legend Gary Lineker (‏@GaryLineker) appears a little bitter: “Arsenal hang on and win a trophy for the 16th season in a row.”

Former Crystal Palace midfielder Mark Bright (‏@Mark__Bright) congratulates Arsenal: “Well done Arsenal, pride of North London again #afc!”

Arsneal fan Piers Morgan (‏@piersmorgan) isn’t impressed by the Gunners celebrations: “Bit embarrassing to see our manager and players wildly celebrating coming 4th. Shows how far we’ve fallen in ambition. #Arsenal”

Gunners legend Bob Wilson (‏@BobWilsonBWSC) is glad to see the Gunners prove the doubters wrong: “Amazing #AFC to make a mockery of the #MOTD team predictions earlier this season.”

Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud ‏(@_OlivierGiroud_) is thrilled: “What a goal Lolo!! Arsenal in Champions League next season!! yeeessss…”

Gunners forward Lukas Podolski (‏@Podolski103) is ecstatic: “Hi Fans, we did it finally ;) Great fight. Great finish, we deserved this fourth place..”

Former Liverpool defender Vegard Heggem ‏(@vedgy) hails Jamie Carragher: “#ThanksCarra. Proud to have played alongside you!”

Marseille midfielder Joseph Barton (‏@Joey7Barton) wonders if Everton can finish ahead of Liverpool next season: “Everton finish above Liverpool, might be the last time we see that in a while… #moyesbigshoestofill”

Fulham defender John Arne Riise ‏(@Johnariise3) is pleased to end the season with a win: “Boom boom boooooom!!! What a great finish to the season. Clean sheet, three goals and three points! Thanks to the travelling fans:) Awesome!!”

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand ‏(@rioferdy5) can’t believe the result between West Brom and the Red Devils: “5-5…..what a mad result! Let’s be honest the boss was never going out with a boring 0-0!!”

Aston Villa defender Ron Vlaar (‏@RonVlaar4) is glad a goal made up for his poor display in a 2-2 draw at Wigan: “My worst game of the season, one good touch saved me! Thanks to the fans for the support this season, looking forward to the next one. #UTV”

Stoke defender Robert Huth ‏(@robert_huth) defines what a successful season is for him: “No broken nose and only 28 stitches this season, a definite positive!”

West Ham striker Andy Carroll (‏@AndyTCarroll) hails Kevin Nolan for his hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Reading: “Great game today buzzing for the skip getting a hat-trick and enjoyed every minute of being at West Ham!!”

Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero (‏@aguerosergiokun) is disappointed to lose 3-2 to Norwich City: “It’s the end of a season that didn’t go as expected but gotten important lessons and learned much.”

Everton defender John Heitinga (‏@Johnheitinga) hails the club’s fans after a 2-1 defeat by Chelsea: “Unfortunately we didn’t beat Chelsea. All fans of #Everton thanks for a year of wonderful support! You are the Champions of the PL. #COYB”

Finally, Stoke striker Michael Owen (‏@themichaelowen) pays his regards to the other legends retiring today: “Congratulations to Carra, Scholesy and all those players retiring today. Legends of the game.”

United were 3-0 up at The Hawthorns after half an hour thanks to Shinji Kagawa’s opener, Jonas Olsson’s own goal and Alexander Buttner’s strike.

But the Baggies pulled one back just before the break through James Morrison, before Romelu Lukaku made it 3-2.

Van Persie and Javier Hernandez then struck to make it 5-2, however another two finishes from Lukaku and a Youssouf Mulumbu goal late on ensured a thrilling game ended all square.

“This is a great bunch of players,” Van Persie, who scored his 26th league goal of the season and picked up the top flight’s Golden Boot on Sunday, told MUTV.

“Everybody wants to work for each other and share the success and I’m 100 per cent sure that we will play for trophies every year and, hopefully, win a few every year. That’s our standard for this team.

“The Premier League means everything and the Golden Boot is like a little bit extra but, as I explained last week, I think they should make 25 of them because we do it together.”

Van Persie, 29, insists that the Red Devils are looking forward to working under new manager Moyes, who will take over at Old Trafford on 1 July.

“Of course, we get a new manager next year and everybody is looking forward to that,” he continued. “It’s a new challenge for everyone. We’ll have a nice break now and then we go again.”

Laurent Koscielny scored the vital winner in the 52nd minute at St James’ Park to help the Gunners pip Tottenham to a fourth-place finish on the final day of the season.

It has been reported that Wenger is set to be handed a significant amount of funds to strengthen his squad this summer.

And quizzed about his plans ahead of next season, the Frenchman told Sky Sports: “It depends what you call ‘big’, is it spending big or buying many players?

“We want of course to have additions to the squad but let’s first keep the structure and the quality of the team we have now and see what we find.

“Let’s not forget that there are many clubs who have big money and maybe there is not enough talent to strengthen all the teams who have money.

“But we’ll be out there [in the transfer market] in a very proactive way.”

The Black Caps were presented with a target of 239 runs to chase in five-and-a-half sessions after bowling the hosts out for 213 in the morning session.

But an inspired-Broad was rampant as he ripped into the New Zealand batting order and helped Alastair Cook’s men take the upper hand in the two-match series.

England began day four with a 205-run lead and four wickets in hand, but Steven Finn lasted a single ball, leaving the hosts on 183-7.

Stuart Broad joined Ian Bell and helped England past 200 before the bowler was caught off the bowling of Tim Southee for just six runs.

Graeme Swann came to the crease but the spinner only managed to add a single run before he recklessly swung at Southee’s delivery to give the Kiwi bowler his tenth wicket of the match.

Kane Williamson ended England’s resistance as James Anderson sent a tame attempt into grateful Black Cap hands to leave the hosts with a 239-run lead to defend.

However, Broad proved devastatingly effective with the ball as Peter Fulton nicked a delivery to Matt Prior with one run on the board before his fellow opener Hamish Rutherford also fell to the Nottinghamshire man.

Ross Taylor came to the crease but managed to survive just one Broad ball before marching back to the pavilion, out for a duck to leave the tourists on 16-3.

Next to go was Kane Williamson as his shot was caught by Finn to hand Broad his fourth wicket of a prolific spell.

James Anderson, who secured his 300th Test wicket on day two, got in on the act and Dean Brownlie was caught by England skipper Alastair Cook.

Broad claimed 5-22 in the morning session with the scalp of New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum to leave the tourists needing 210 runs with four wickets in hand.

Southee and BJ Watling emerged after lunch at a darkened Lord’s ground, and the partnership lasted 12 runs before Root caught Southee’s lofted effort to hand Broad yet another wicket.

Watling managed to get the Kiwis over the 50-run mark but Anderson took his second wicket of the second innings as Kiwis bowler guided a shot to Jonathan Trott second slip.

Leaving the tourists on 54-8, the end was nigh and Bruce Martin was bowled by the in-form Broad before Wagner was run out to give England an emphatic 170-run win and a 1-0 lead in the series.

Darren Bent put the visitors ahead in the fifth minute with a neat finish but Emmerson Boyce equalised for the Latics and Nathan Baker’s own goal put the hosts 2-1 up before the break.

However, Ron Vlaar’s brilliant half-volley earned Villa a point, with relegated Wigan preparing for life in the Championship.

And Martínez, who has been linked with the soon-to-be vacant Everton job, refused to be drawn on his future after the game.

“I will have a full week to sit down with the chairman to talk about things,” Martinez, who led the club to an FA Cup triumph last weekend, told BBC Sport.

“Whatever happens I think Wigan has a bright future.

“It’s a day of mixed feelings but the fans understand the magnitude of winning the FA Cup. The first team to win it and get relegated shows you how difficult it is to win the FA Cup.

“Now is also the time to look back at all the great games we have played in the Premier League over the years.”