Tottenham Hotspur fluffed their last-day lines with a 5-1 defeat at relegated, 10-man Newcastle United that left them third in the Premier League behind bitter north London rivals Arsenal.
Newcastle’s swashbuckling performance with two goals from Georginio Wijnaldum and one from Aleksandar Mitrovic, sent off in the 67th minute for a bad foul on Kyle Walker, may have gone some way to persuading Rafa Benitez to stay on as their manager in The Championship.
Erik Lamela pulled one back for Spurs on the hour when they were 2-0 down but Newcastle recovered their two-goal lead with a Wijnaldum penalty for a Jan Vertonghen foul on the busy Moussa Sissoko, a thorn in the visiting defence.
Spurs, who had needed just a point to finish second and above Arsenal for the first time since 1995, were left shell-shocked as substitute Rolando Aarons and Daryl Janmaat added further goals in the last five minutes.
