Arsenal beat Liverpool 3-1 on Sunday to help fourth-ranked Everton secure a berth for next season's European Champions League for the first time.

The Gunners' win left Liverpool languishing in fifth ranking with 55 points, 6 points adrift of Everton with only one game remained.

Arsenal look virtually certain to finish as runners-up and qualify directly for the European Champions League as goals from Robert Pires, Jose Antonio Reyes and Francesc Fabregas put Arsenal six points ahead of Manchester United with two games left.

Pires' precision free-kick put Arsenal ahead and soon after Jose Antonio Reyes' run and angled shot exposed some lax Liverpool defending.

Steven Gerrard's deflected free-kick on 51st minutes gave Liverpool hope but in stoppage time Cesc Fabregas rounded off a sweeping move for Arsenal's third.

As so often this season Liverpool packed their midfield, leaving Milan Baros up on his own in attack, in an attempt to stifle Arsenal.

For the start of the second half manager Rafael Benitez introduced Djibril Cisse and Harry Kewell, a change that saw a more ambitious approach, but the poverty of their play in the opening period proved too much of a mountain to climb.

A flavour of Liverpool's insipid first-half display came on 10 minutes when a mistake from Sami Hyppia and a Jerzy Dudek fumble allowed Reyes to score from close range, only for the goal to be disallowed for offside.

Dudek did better to thwart Lauren, pushing the Cameroonian's header on to the bar, though the Arsenal defender fluffed his shot in trying to convert the rebound.

Arsenal had their own lucky escape when John Arne Riise eluded the Arsenal defence to collect Dietmar Hamann's pass.

With Luis Garcia calling for the ball, Riise opted to shoot, an effort deflected away by Jens Lehmann's feet.

By the midway point of the first half Arsenal had gathered a head of steam, demonstrating wonderful individual play allied to a great collective ethic.

First Pires curled a shot narrowly wide and in the 25th minte the Frenchman punished Liverpool following Hamann's crude tackle on Patrick Vieira.

From just outside the box Pires flighted the ball over the Liverpool wall into the net with Dudek only able to look on from the other side of the goal.

Four minutes later, Reyes waltzed his way through the Liverpool defence and slipped the ball past the advancing Dudek for the second.

After the interval Liverpool quickly pulled a goal back, Fabregas turning his back on Gerrard's free-kick and deflecting the England international's shot past Lehmann. Gerrard then unleashed a fierce drive that produced an athletic Lehmann save.

Liverpool kept plugging away but with time running out substitute Dennis Bergkamp flicked the ball through to Fabregas who rattled a shot past Dudek.