In the end, Sheffield United who were in pole position to survive before the games kicked off, lost the game at home and their Premiership status. The trapdoors for the Blades were already half-open when former player David Unsworth clinically dispatched a penalty after Phil Jagielka had handled the ball late in first half injury time.

If there was a consipracy theory to prevent West Ham from staying up, Manchester United players were clearly not informed. They fell to yet another defeat by the Hammers, after having lost by the same score-line at Upton Park. Despite all the controversies and relegation scares they have suffered, West Ham remain the only club to do the double over both champions Manchester United and Arsenal.

As for Sheffield United, the moral of the story seemed to be : Never go looking for favours when fate is in your hands. With a good record at home, they should have concentrated on wiining the match against Wigan and getting the job done, rather than having an eye elsewhere for results to go their way.

In contrast, few gave Wigan a chance to win but that was the only thing on their mind. There were no distractions. It was win or bust for them and perhaps that made all the difference.

Wigan found themselves in second place in the Premiership table dreaming of European football during November of last season, but they could not maintain the momentum and eventually finished in a creditable 10th position. They even reached last season's League Cup final, where they faced Manchester United but sadly, they seemed overawed by the occasion and were beated 4-0. Wigan began this season confident of continuing a fairytale but it's been pretty much downhill. Since New Year's Day, they have won just three games.

A record 5.5 million pounds outlay on EMile Heskey, the capture of goalkeeper Chris Kirkland from Liverpool, plus several other promising signings had given Jewell's squad a stronger, younger and more balanced look, but the departures of Jimmy Bullard, Graham Kavanagh, Pascal Chimbonda and Jason Rovers last summer have proven more destabilising than the club anticipated.

But Jewell deserves a lot of respect for not blaming everything and everyone else for Wigan's demise this season. And not only that, he also commands alot of respect for the amazing job that he has done at Wigan for the past 6 years. Instead of putting the blame on West Ham's let-off, Jewell was also honest enough to say that they have not been good enough and there can be no excuses if they went down.

The JJB was a tough place to go last season and Wigan were enjoying the excitement of a first season in the Premiership while playing without fear and causing upsets. Sheffield United seemed to typify that by building a fortress at Bramall Lane. Unfortunately they have come up short on the final day, missing out on a second Premiership campaign by goal difference. In fact, the Blades could have survived if they had scored one more goal or conceded one less. The margins couldn't have been narrower.