Arsenal soothed the pain of letting the Premiership title slip from their grasp by sticking the knife into relegated Sunderland and twisting it.

The Gunners, who will hope to reap some reward from their season in next weekend's FA Cup Final, simply overwhelmed Mick McCarthy's dispirited troops, who left the pitch at the end of the 90 minutes having at least been put out of their misery in their 15th successive league defeat.

Thierry Henry's 24th league goal of the season started the ball rolling, but it was a fine hat-trick by Freddie Ljungberg which did the real damage on an afternoon when, but for the heroics of Thomas Sorensen, the scoreline could have been worse for the Black Cats.

The Dane and striker Kevin Phillips pointedly stayed on the pitch after their team-mates had left to say their goodbyes with the departure of both, as well as several colleagues, seemingly inevitable.

But while they were feted for their efforts during their time on Wearside, there was a mixed response as McCarthy led his players in a vote of thanks to the fans who have stood by them throughout a dreadful campaign.

It may be some time before the Wearsiders play another Premiership game, but the one certain thing is that many of the men who played out this final day fixture will never step back on to the pitch as Sunderland players.

Only a few short weeks ago, this game looked like it could go some way to deciding the destination of the Premiership title, but with last Sunday's 3-2 home defeat by Leeds having ended the Gunners' hopes and Sunderland long relegated, this was little more than a wake.

Sunderland have collected a series of unwanted records in recent weeks - they have won only four league games all season, scored just 21 goals and not won in their last 20 outings.

But after good performances in home defeats by high-flying Chelsea and Newcastle under McCarthy, they ran out determined to make life difficult for the visitors.

However, the game was effectively over as a contest just seven minutes in when Dennis Bergkamp capitalised on Sean Thornton's error to hand Henry a chance which he accepted with glee.

Sorensen pulled off superb first-half saves from Bergkamp and Ljungberg to ensure the first-half scoreline was not too embarrassing long before the Swede made it 2-0.

This time Bergkamp and Henry combined to present Ljungberg with a close-range opportunity, and he coolly beat Sorensen to hammer another nail into the Black Cats' coffin.

McCarthy's problems took a depressing turn for the worse on the stroke of half-time when defender Darren Williams fell awkwardly and had to be stretchered off, George McCartney getting the nod to play out the remainder of the season with the last rites bringing little comfort to the red and white faithful.

What was not in any doubt was that Sunderland would come out fighting after the break, but their resistance was brief and, barring a Kevin Kilbane shot which David Seaman saved with his legs and a Phillips free-kick which curled just wide, forlorn.

While they continued to chase and press, Henry started to toy with them, torturing Joachim Bjorklund and cutting huge swathes through the home defence once again.

Indeed, even the home fans started to applaud his more outrageous attempts to add to his tally, although the home side somehow managed to hang on.

The Frenchman saw a left-foot shot deflected over and Sorensen then had to save from Robert Pires.

Henry found himself bearing down on goal once again with 16 minutes remaining after Ljungberg split the home defence, but although he completely out-foxed Jody Craddock, he dragged his effort wide.

Bergkamp made way for Kanu two minutes later and the third goal arrived within seconds, Van Bronckhorst making the most of Craddock's slip to put Henry away before the striker nonchalantly picked out Ljungberg at the far post, and he made no mistake.

Ljungberg completed his hat-trick two minutes from time when he again benefited from Henry's incision to wrap things up.

Teams:

Sunderland: Sorensen, Gray, Craddock, Bjorklund, Williams (McCartney 45), Black (Oster 45), Thornton (Ryan 45), McCann, Kilbane, Kyle, Phillips.

Subs Not Used: Poom, Proctor.

Booked: McCann.

Arsenal: Seaman, Cole, Stepanovs, Luzhny, Toure, Pires (Pennant 64), Silva, Parlour (van Bronckhorst 45), Ljungberg, Bergkamp (Kanu 75), Henry.

Subs Not Used: Warmuz, Garry.

Goals: Henry 7, Ljungberg 39, 78, 88.

Att: 40,188

Ref: P Durkin (Dorset).