The match had the air of a testimonial, as if the players had confused the occasion with tonight’s Tony Adams benefit.Certainly, there was charity from both sides, not least when the Everton defence presented Dennis Bergkamp with the first goal in cellophane wrapping. I don’t suppose even Thomas Thomas of Thomastown much doubted that Arsenal would complete their record of scoring in every Premiership match, but he might have expected the visitors to hang on for longer than four minutes. Chris and I assumed we were in for an epic hiding.We shrank a little in our seats when a chant briefly went up from the chaps in the row behind us: “We’ve got Dennis Bergkamp, you’ve got Lee Carsley.” But less than a minute later Carsley belted home a terrific equaliser. So in reply we sang: “We’ve got Lee Carsley, you’ve got Dennis Bergkamp.” Not loudly, though In fact, not audibly. Even at an orgy of celebration, you can’t be too careful.So much for the final Saturday of the Premiership season. What, though, of the league table it yielded? As always, it tells no lies.

Every team ended up in the position it deserved, from Arsenal at the top – especially Arsenal at the top – to Leicester at the bottom. Apart from a few discrepancies (Manchester United finishing outside the top two; Newcastle qualifying for the Champions’ League; Ipswich going down) it is very close to the table we would all have predicted last August.Indeed, if Rangers and Celtic leave the Scottish Premier League, then the top division in Scotland, for the first time in living memory, will be rendered a sight less predictable than its counterpart in England. Be it Arsenal, Manchester United or Liverpool, there is no doubt that a team in red will win the Premiership in 2002-03.It is a deep, deep shame for English football that clubs can no longer win major honours without spending obscene amounts of money. The heartening corollary to this is that clubs can spend obscene amounts of money and still fail to win major honours. Manchester United and Leeds United invested squillions, yet under-achieved. Those moody Celts Alex Ferguson and David O’Leary should not be surprised if, accordingly, the rest of us draw some satisfaction from their disappointment.Like three other Premiership clubs, Everton sacked a manager in 2001-02.Before that, I was lambasterised (the word of the season, unwittingly invented by Stan Collymore) by many fellow-travellers for a sympathetic interview with Walter Smith published in these pages. But then came the abject defeats at West Ham and Middlesbrough which convinced me – and, somewhat more significantly, the board – that Smith’s time was probably up.I still think, however, that other managers might not have kept us aloft for as long as he did.

I also think that although Smith was widely and rightly proclaimed to be a man of honour at the time of his sacking, majority shareholder Bill Kenwright behaved honourably too. Whether he picked the right successor in David Moyes will be determined over the next 12 months.To me the future looks bright, but then my vision might still be impaired by the celebratory fireworks let off at Highbury on Saturday.b.viner independent.co.uk. Arsenal players dominate The Independent Index team of the season although it is Manchester United’s inspirational captain, Roy Keane, who emerges as the single most consistent performer based on his personal input throughout the league campaign. His team-mate Ryan Giggs has done almost as well but Arsenal players dominate through Robert Pires, Fredrik Ljungberg, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.

Patrick Vieira, David Seaman and Sol Campbell were also on the fringes of the team.After every league match this season, our reporters have assessed every player who featured for at least 15 minutes in the game and awarded them a mark out of 10 based on fixed criteria. The scale ranges from one point for an abysmal display of almost no merit whatsoever, through to 10 points for the kind of outstanding individual performance that you are only likely to see once or twice a season.After 380 matches and some 10,000 assessments – logged into a database that calculates running averages on a daily basis – the statistics here are a reflection of the entire league campaign. A player needs to have played a third of his side’s games to gain a ranking. The rankings do not take into account any cup or international games, solely displays in the Premiership. David Beckham’s exploits for England count for nothing here.The leading Index goalkeeper, Mart Poom, may raise a few eyebrows, not least because injuries have kept him out of a relegated Derby County side for long periods. But he has played just enough matches to merit a ranking, and when he has played he has generally excelled. Reported interest from the likes of Manchester United is testament to his quality.At the back, three players – all central defenders, and two of them World Cup-bound with England: Middlesbrough’s Gareth Southgate and Rio Ferdinand of Leeds United and Sami Hyypia of Liverpool – have stood apart for most of the season.