Loanees help Blues seal promotion

Five players are currently away from Arsenal on loan. Cameroonian midfielder Alexandre Song is getting Premiership experience after joining Charlton Athletic until the end of the season while defender Kerrea Gilbert will spend the entire campaign at Cardiff. Fabrice Muamba and Nicklas Bendtner do likewise at Birmingham and Arturo Lupoli will spend the rest of the campaign at Derby County.

Keep up-to-date with the fortunes of all our loan stars in our regular Loan Watch...

Nicklas Bendtner, Fabrice Muamba
Birmingham City 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday, April 28
Fabrice Muamba and Nicklas Bendtner are celebrating after helping Birmingham secure promotion to the Premiership at the weekend. Victory over Sheffield Wednesday and Derby's 2-0 defeat at Crystal Palace on Sunday means the Blues return to the top flight at the first attempt. Goals from striker Cameron Jerome (74) and former Arsenal player Sebastian Larsson (84) were enough to see off the Owls. Bendtner played 68 minutes while Muamba was sent off on 58 minutes after picking up two bookings.

Alexandre Song
Blackburn Rovers 4-1 Charlton Athletic, April 28
Alexandre Song played a full 90 minutes as Charlton's survival hopes suffered a sizeable dent at Blackburn. Five goals and a sending off in the final 30 minutes made for an entertaining encounter at Ewood Park but ultimately the Addicks' top-flight status is left hanging by a thread. Jason Roberts opened the scoring on the hour mark and despite Ben Thatcher's dismissal four minutes later Darren Bent pulled Charlton level on 71 minutes. A Hermann Hreidarsson own goal (77), a second goal for Roberts (80) and another from Matt Derbyshire (83) completed the scoring. With two games remaining Charlton sit in 19th place, two points behind both West Ham and Wigan.

Arturo Lupoli
Crystal Palace 2-0 Derby County, April 29
Arturo Lupoli and Derby will be left to fight for promotion via the play-offs after slipping to defeat at Crystal Palace. Former Birmingham striker Clinton Morrison did his former employers a favour, scoring the first on 29 minutes in a victory which handed the Blues promotion back to the top flight. Mark Kennedy completed the scoring with 23 minutes remaining. Lupoli was introduced as a substitute on 51 minutes but could not salvage the Rams' hopes of automatic promotion. Second-placed Sunderland are also promoted.

Kerrea Gilbert
Cardiff City 0-1 Hull City, April 28
Kerrea Gilbert did not feature as Cardiff's winless streak stretched to eight games. Veteran striker Dean Windass hooked in the only goal of the game on 52 minutes to all but secure the Tigers' Championship survival. Leeds would have to overturn a nine-goal deficit in the one remaining game to save themselves and relegate their Yorkshire rivals. Cardiff, who topped the league in November, are now 11th with 64 points from their 45 games.

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