RVP earns draw for Manchester United as Chelsea win

The former Gunners captain received the expected hot reception as soon as he stepped out at the Emirates Stadium for a guard of honour, which was impeccably observed by the Arsenal team to mark United's achievements in marching to a 20th championship.

It was, though, Arsenal - without suspended forward Olivier Giroud - who raced into the lead as Theo Walcott beat the offside trap to fire the hosts ahead inside two minutes.

However, despite enduring plenty of cheers from the home support as passions continued to run high in the wake of his controversial £24million move to Old Trafford last summer, Van Persie kept his cool to equalise from the spot just before half-time after being brought down by Bacary Sagna.

To his credit, there was no wild celebration from the former Arsenal captain, who continued to test the home defence in the second half.

Neither side, though, was able to press on and claim all three points, with a draw seeing Arsenal drop into fourth place, but still two points ahead of Tottenham, albeit having played a match more in the race for Champions League qualification.

Frank Lampard scored his 201st Chelsea goal as the Blues moved closer to a return to the Champions League with a 2-0 victory over Swansea at Stamford Bridge.

Lampard, who began the game as a substitute, set up Oscar's opener before converting a 45th-minute penalty to move him within one goal of the club record held by the watching Bobby Tambling.

Last season's European champions sit third but were unable to add to their total in the second half as they moved three points clear of Tottenham and extended Swansea's winless run to six games.

Reading and QPR were both relegated from the Barclays Premier League on Sunday following their 0-0 draw, with neither side able to secure the win they required at the Madejski Stadium to still have an outside chance of surviving.

In a game bereft of quality both sides were guilty of wasting the few chances that fell their way as they both bowed out of the top flight with a whimper.

A win for either would have kept them mathematically in the hunt for survival and relegated the losers, whereas the draw condemned both clubs to the npower Championship.