IT WOULD have seemed wrong for Arsenal to say farewell to Highbury with nothing at stake beyond places in the team for the Champions League final against Barcelona on May 17. Defeat last night would have ended their hopes of finishing fourth in the Barclays Premiership, ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, but two late goals from José Antonio Reyes increased their confidence of hosting top-class European football at Ashburton Grove no matter what their fate in Paris.

Tottenham remain a point clear with one match remaining, but they have little margin for error away to West Ham United on Sunday, when Arsenal take on Wigan Athletic in their historic final game at Highbury.

Arsenal will enter that game high on confidence — not least Ashley Cole, who made a successful comeback after a lengthy injury layoff, and Thierry Henry, who was magnificent — with the only blemish the antics of Robin van Persie, who appeared to gesture at the home supporters as he made way for Reyes.

As he accepted the man-of-the-match award, Henry mumbled something about people “doing signs when there are kids around”, but it was unclear whether he was accusing Van Persie or whoever was responsible for antagonising the Arsenal forward as he took his place on the bench.

Far more important was the fact that Reyes scored twice within 11 minutes of his introduction to put pressure on a Tottenham side who might have felt that fourth place, if not necessarily guaranteed passage to the Champions League, was in their grasp.

Henry admitted that “it’s still in Tottenham’s hands”, but added that “we just wanted to make sure that a draw wasn’t enough for them”. Arsène Wenger agreed, saying that his faith in English football culture meant that he was prepared to put his trust in West Ham, even though Alan Pardew’s side play Liverpool in the FA Cup Final six days later.

“England is a fair competition,” the Arsenal manager said. “But first we have to do our job.” If not, of course, Arsenal can still pip their neighbours to a Champions League place by beating Barcelona.

This was not the ideal preparation for that game, but though Manchester City were low on confidence as they lurched to an eighth defeat in nine matches, they did their best to stave off the end-of- season blues. Stuart Pearce, the manager, felt that his team competed well enough after David Sommeil cancelled out Fredrik Ljungberg’s goal as half-time approached, but City had no answer to the superior quality provided by Henry and Reyes in the closing stages.

Henry was not at his imperious best, but he was nonetheless so magnificent to watch that twice home supporters, irritated by the histrionics of Van Persie and Jens Lehmann, rose to acclaim him as he went to take a corner. It is painful to think that Sunday might be his last Premiership appearance if the lure of Barcelona proves too strong this summer.

Typical was the way that he laid on the opening goal on the half-hour. There seemed little danger when the Arsenal captain took possession 30 yards from goal, but he rolled his foot over the ball, changed direction, surged past Claudio Reyna and slipped through a perfect pass from which Ljungberg cleverly made room for himself before finding the far corner for his first Premiership goal of the season.

Sommeil equalised eight minutes later, bundling the ball home after Arsenal failed to deal with Joey Barton’s corner, but, even though Richard Dunne and the impressive Micah Richards went close in the second half, the visiting team carried the greater threat.

Ljungberg struck a post and Alexander Hleb forced David James into a decent save before Reyes pierced City’s resistance with goals in the 78th and 84th minutes, the first after Emmanuel Eboué led a sweeping move down the right, the second curled home deliciously after another superb run by Henry. English football says goodbye to Highbury on Sunday. Let us hope it is not also adieu to their captain.

MANCHESTER CITY (4-4-2): D James — D Sommeil, R Dunne, M Richards, Sun Jihai — T Sinclair (sub: L Croft, 77min), C Reyna, J Barton, A Riera (sub: W Flood, 82) — G Samaras, D Vassell. Substitutes not used: M Mills, B Wright-Phillips, N Weaver. Booked: Riera, Vassell, Dunne.

ARSENAL (4-4-2): J Lehmann — E Eboué, K Touré, S Campbell, A Cole — F Ljungberg, Gilberto Silva, A Song (sub: F Fàbregas, 78), A Hleb (sub: R Pires, 72) — R van Persie (sub: J A Reyes, 73), T Henry. Substitutes not used: J Djourou, M Almunia.

Referee: G Poll.