MANCHESTER, May 5: Two late goals by Spanish substitute Jose Antonio Reyes earned Arsenal a 3-1 win away to Manchester City at Eastlands on Thursday and kept Arsene Wenger's side on course for a top-four Premiership finish.

Wenger's Champions League finalists had looked set for a frustrating evening after French defender David Sommeil had cancelled out Freddie Ljungberg's excellent 30th minute opener.

City's England keeper David James produced a string of breathtaking saves before Reyes twice found the target in the space of six minutes late on to sentence City to a fifth successive home defeat.

Victory left Arsenal needing to get a better result against Wigan on Sunday than Tottenham achieve against West Ham to pip their north London rivals for fourth place and direct entry into next season's Champions League.

But were Wenger's men to beat Barcelona in the final of this year's Champions League in Paris on May 17, they would still qualify even if Tottenham finished fourth.

Man-of-the-Match Thierry Henry added: “We had to go up more than a gear. I think we played some good football and we got our reward. We wanted to do our job. It is still in their (Tottenham's) hands, but we wanted to make sure a draw for them (at West Ham on Sunday) was not going to be enough.”

Yet the visitors were fortunate not to fall behind in the 20th minute when Greek striker Georgios Samaras suddenly found himself clean through with only Jens Lehmann to beat. Samaras looked certain to score his sixth goal in City colours yet delayed his shot so long he allowed Ivory Coast defender Kolo Toure to get back and make a challenge.

It proved a costly mistake as Ljungberg gave Samaras a lesson in the art of finishing 10 minutes later.

Arsenal had hardly threatened David James's goal when captain Henry produced a defence-splitting pass after a delightful run to set-up Ljungberg, who kept his composure to finish well.

City though soon found themselves back level through an unlikely source. Sloppy defending from a corner allowed the unmarked Trevor Sinclair to make a goal-bound header and from the ensuing scramble Sommeil was able to prod the ball over the line for only his second goal of the season.

Arsenal spurned two fine chances to regain the lead before half-time with the usually reliable Henry screwing one opportunity horribly wide following a neat one-two with Robin van Persie after Sol Campbell had gone close with a flying header.

After the break Dutch striker van Persie was prevented from scoring his 12th goal of the season by a finger-tip James save within 30 seconds of the re-start while Ljungberg was denied his second of the night when his 52nd minute right-foot drive bounced off a post.

But Reyes sealed the points with two clinical finishes. He gave James no chance when he connected with Emmanuel Eboue's 78th minute centre from the right before dispatching another effort past the City keeper six minutes from time after more magic by the excellent Henry.-—AFP