SAINTS are guaranteed their highest league finish for 30 years after Manchester City won at Swansea this afternoon.

Following City’s 4-2 success in Wales, the lowest Ronald Koeman’s men can now finish is seventh.

That represents their best-ever Premier League finish, beating the eighth place they managed in both 2002/03 and last season.

Saints can still finish a remarkable season in fifth place if they win at Manchester City on the final day next weekend and both Tottenham and Liverpool fail to pick up three points at Everton and Stoke respectively.

The last time Saints finished higher than seventh was in 1984/85 when Lawrie McMenemy’s side claimed a fifth place finish.

Yaya Toure struck twice for City as he went past 50 goals in the Premier League and James Milner was also on target before Wilfried Bony, on as a late substitute, scored against the club he left for an initial £25million fee in January.

Swansea's defeat means their hopes of Europa League qualification are definitely over as Garry Monk's men will finish eighth.

But they gave City an almighty scare after falling 2-0 behind inside 36 minutes, levelling through Gylfi Sigurdsson and Bafetimbi Gomis, before the deposed Premier League champions had England goalkeeper Joe Hart to thank for some outstanding saves.

Toure reached a half-century of Premier League goals when his deflected 21st-minute drive surprised Lukasz Fabianski in the Swansea goal and Milner then added a second from a quicksilver counter-attack.

But Sigurdsson's 20-yarder on the stroke of half-time gave Swansea hope and Gomis followed up his late winner as a substitute at Arsenal last Monday by capitalising on Eliaquim Mangala's mistake to fire home a 64th-minute equaliser.

But Toure drove home his second 10 minutes later and Bony finally settled matters off a post in stoppage time, although the Ivorian held his hands up as if to apologise to home supporters who had given him a warm ovation on his return to Swansea.