Intriguingly, the result of yesterday's game was almost a side issue for so many in the vast crowd.

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They wanted to pay tribute to the players of course, but not as much as they wanted to hail the chief architects of the new era - Niall Quinn and Roy Keane.

And the stands are buzzing even more about what Sunderland might do next season than what they achieved in the current one. It is a long time since there was such optimism or excitement around the place.

Sunderland reverted to 4-5-1, with Marton Fulop in goal, while Dwight Yorke was given a start in central midfield - potentially his last game for the club.

The change of personnel sparked an immediate impact and Sunderland went for goal in the first 12 seconds with Carlos Edwards arrowing a bold shot from distance to Lukasz Fabianski's right-hand corner, which the keeper blocked and gathered at the second attempt.

An incident-packed first half hour's play unfolded, with opportunities for both sides.

Grant Leadbittter curled a free-kick, 30 yards out, left of goal, inches over the Arsenal crossbar.

But Arsenal got their breakthrough in the 24th minute with an exquisite goal - Brazilian midfielder Gilberto picking his pass perfectly from the half-way line and Theo Walcott timing his run superbly to bisect Danny Collins and Jonny Evans, sprint in on goal and drive a low shot beyond Fulop from the edge of the box.

Walcott might have grabbed a second after an offside flag stayed down but a more crushing blow came just before half-time when the well-shackled Kenwyne Jones took a blow on his right wrist from an attempted clearance and had to head down the tunnel with a break.

Understandably, Jones failed to emerge after the half-time interval and he was replaced by Roy O'Donovan who was to have a great chance to make a lasting impression with a string of openings but failed to finish off any of them.

But it was far from being all Sunderland.

Walcott got the better of Collins in the dying stages and Arsenal had the ball in the back of the net through substitute Mark Randall only for it to be harshly ruled offside - then Fulop produced a world class save to deny Randall on the stroke of full-time.

In the final seconds, there was the promise that Sunderland might yet have the most romantic of ends to their season with another trademark late goal but a great centre from Whitehead from the right which brought a deft touch from O'Donovan only for Fabianski to save.