Newcastle stunned the league after Sunday's win over Arsenal.

And Magpies boss Rafa Benitez has praised his players for the way they battled to hold their 2-1 lead over the top-six club.

The win secured Newcastle's Premier League status for another season, and when asked if beating a top-six was sweet, Benitez replied: "Yes.

"Some people were saying maybe it's exaggerating (about Arsenal being a top side).

"But you could see in the first half how they were passing the ball, very precise, very fast, very good players, a very good team, so we needed to work really hard to stop them playing at the high tempo that they were playing and after use our tools to try to get the points.

"We did it and we did well against a very good team."