Things too tight at bottom for collusion

English FA Premiership:In a season when lawyers as well as footballers have threatened to influence the Premiership's relegation battle, it is perhaps inevitable that fresh talk of conspiracy should loom over the concluding day of the season.

Wigan Athletic and Sheffield United have been united in their protests since West Ham United were spared a points deduction over the Tevez-Mascherano affair and there is speculation that the two clubs might collude when they play each other tomorrow, in an attempt to send West Ham down with Charlton and Watford.

Victory for Wigan combined with defeat for West Ham at Manchester United would almost certainly consign the London club to the Championship on goal difference.

West Ham manager Alan Curbishley, however, believes it would be unthinkable for Sheffield United to gift Wigan a win which, if West Ham drew at Old Trafford, could backfire and send Neil Warnock's team down.

"People can get together and have these conspiracy theories but I don't think it has entered anyone's minds because it is so dangerous," said Curbishley.

The Wigan chairman Dave Whelan and his Sheffield United counterpart Kevin McCabe have met to discuss a legal challenge to the independent disciplinary panel's decision merely to fine West Ham. "The fact of the matter is the inquiry have come to their judgment and everyone's got to get on with it," said Curbishley. "I think they should be concentrating on their football."

Warnock yesterday insisted he was thinking of nothing other than getting the win that would guarantee his club's Premiership status. "We have to assume West Ham will win at Old Trafford and that we need to win. You've got to think that everything that can go against you will go against you," he said.

Curbishley, who spoke to Alex Ferguson this week, believes United will not follow the example of Liverpool at Fulham last week by fielding a significantly weakened team tomorrow. "Alex has said that he has got to respect the league and he will put a strong side out."

Wigan manager Paul Jewell appeared unimpressed by Rafael Benitez's team selection for a match more than two weeks before Liverpool's Champions League final against Milan. "If it's Liverpool or Manchester United they can rest players. But if Sheffield United did it against us and we ended up sending West Ham down, I really think there would be murder," he said.

He joked that he had received a good-luck text message from the Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore who he suspects may be secretly hoping that West Ham do get relegated. "We will get people off the hook if we win and send West Ham down."