Five things we learned from the weekend's football

1 Arsenal must improve on the road

Arsenal are at serious risk of facing a third successive season of Europa League football and their stagnation will probably continue until they address their obvious weakness in away games.

Their home record is the third best in the division and should have given them a platform to secure a top-four finish.

But they have lost 19 Premier League away games across the last two seasons, culminating in Sunday's 3-0 defeat at Leicester.

The score was 0-0 when Ainsley Maitland-Niles was harshly red-carded in the 36th minute but Arsenal were already being outplayed and had relied heavily on goalkeeper Bernd Leno to stay in the game.

Leno and centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos have been astute signings but more reinforcements are needed if Arsenal are to get back among the Premier League elite.

Premier League standings

2 Cottage industry came far too late

Three successive wins have given Fulham fans some end-of-season cheer but they raise more questions than answers about a group of players who have waited until relegation to show their true quality.

Fulham owner Shahid Khan spent a lot of money with the intention of re-establishing the club in the top flight but performances and results have fallen well below expectations.

There were flashes of quality from time to time but Fulham's players waited until April to start doing the basics right and play as a team.

Their work rate has noticeably improved and results have followed with Fulham registering excellent victories against Everton (2-0), Bournemouth (1-0) and Cardiff (1-0).

Incredibly they have kept more clean sheets in their last three games than in the previous 33.

It all reflects well on manager Scott Parker but not so well on the players, who could have done much more to keep Fulham in the survival hunt.

3 Millers' time will come again

There were tears from Rotherham manager Paul Warne after his team's relegation from the Sky Bet Championship was confirmed by a 2-1 loss at West Brom on Saturday.

But Warne can look back with pride on another gutsy performance from the Millers, who will be among the favourites to win the third tier next season.

Rotherham have become a yoyo team – winning promotions in 2014 and 2018 and suffering relegations in 2017 and 2019.

But they have been far more competitive this season than they were in 2016-17 when they finished bottom of the Championship on 23 points.

Warne may face a battle keeping powerful holding midfielder Seyi Ajayi, who has been a massive presence in both penalty boxes.

However, he has an excellent knowledge of the League One scene and may not have to adjust much to have Rotherham among the front-runners next season.

Sky Bet Championship standings

4 Charlton will take some stopping

Charlton have gone under the radar in a remarkable Sky Bet League One promotion race but will quietly fancy their chances in next month's playoffs.

Lee Bowyer's team have amassed 25 points in their last ten games and should carry a lot of confidence into the vital games coming up.

They are the only team who know they will be in the playoffs and can plan accordingly.

Bowyer rested several key players, including top scorer Lyle Taylor, for Saturday's clash at Gillingham but his team showed their strength in depth by claiming a 2-0 victory.

Sunderland, Portsmouth, Barnsley and Luton are still scrapping it out for automatic promotion but two of them are going to miss out and there will not be much time to recover mentally and physically in time for the playoffs.

Sky Bet League One standings

5 Crewe on the right track for next season

Crewe have come up just short in the battle for Sky Bet League Two playoff places but are likely to be strong contenders in next season's promotion race.

David Artell has developed an exciting young team heavily influenced by graduates from the club's famous academy.

Wingers Charlie Kirk and Callum Ainley and defender Perry Ng have been among the most influential and it will be interesting to see if rival clubs court their services this summer.

Crewe's challenge is to keep the group together because they are developing into a fine side.

Artell's team banked 40 points from the last 22 games, averaging 1.82 points per game.

If they show similar consistency over an entire campaign they will be firmly in the mix for automatic promotion.

Sky Bet League One standings

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