It is a fascinating finish, the most compelling since 1972, when Brian Clough’s Derby County pipped Leeds and Liverpool, both by a single point, while sunning themselves on a beach in Majorca, and the outcome could challenge the time-honoured tenet that any league is always won by the best team in it.

In terms of points, there is nothing to choose between Manchester United and Chelsea going into the Premier League’s denouement day. Only United’s superior goal difference - an insurmountable margin of 17 better than that of Chelsea - separates the European Cup finalists at the top of the table.

So much for the arithmetic. In terms of the quality of football played these past nine months, there is clear daylight between them, reflected in the fact that the defending champions have scored 14 goals more than their rivals, averaging more than two goals per game, and possess both the country’s most prodigious and prolific talent in Cristiano Ronaldo and its most watertight defence.

In the eyes of all bar those viewing the issue through blue-tinted spectacles, United are the most accomplished and talented team, and yet . . .

The probability this afternoon is that the top two will both win, and that the doyen, Sir Alex Ferguson, will have his 10th domestic title. For that to happen, however, United will at least have to match Chelsea’s result at home to Bolton.

The roulette wheel is weighted in favour of red, but stranger things have happened than the leaders slipping up at the JJB stadium. In 1972, for example, Don Revie’s Leeds were the strongest team in the country, had already won the FA Cup and needed only a point against mid-table Wolves on the Monday night to complete the Double. They lost 2-1 and Derby, whose season had ended the weekend before and who had gone to Majorca on a collective holiday, were champions in absentia.

History’s lesson is there: it’s never over until it’s over. Of course, Ronaldo and company should beat Wigan, especially with that great leveller of the JJB stadium’s rugby league pitch fully repaired over the past fortnight, but recent results suggest that nothing ought to be taken for granted.

Deep in the mire - an appropriate phrase if ever there was one for that behemoth-scarred surface - the most poorly supported team in the top division were about to fall off their pier until Steve Bruce arrived from Birmingham at the end of November. The former United defender may have cost £3m in compensation, but he has been worth every penny, his galvanising personality hoisting what was a demoralised team to the heady heights of 13th place, above his old mate Roy Keane at Sunderland.

With Bruce organising, chivvying and cajoling, Wigan are unbeaten in their past five games. Their 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a month ago is the result that has left Avram Grant’s side behind the black ball today, and their advance was further highlighted by a 2-0 win at Aston Villa last Saturday, which guaranteed them another season of top-flight football, their fourth.

They are certainly playing like a team in form, with Antonio Valencia and Wilson Palacios improved beyond recognition, so much so that they are attracting the interest of the Big Four, and Ferguson’s managerial protégé is guaranteed to make life difficult for his old mentor. We are assured, and must believe, that there will be no old pals’ act.

That said, the inescapable thought occurs that anything Wigan can do, United can surely do better, especially when it comes to putting the ball in the net. With 30 goals Ronaldo alone has scored only four fewer than Wigan in the Premier League this season. Even in the absence of Wayne Rooney, who is being rested for precautionary reasons ahead of the Champions League final in 10 days, the Footballer of the Year still has formidable back-up in Carlos Tevez, with 14 league goals.

In an embarrassing comparison, Wigan have nobody on their books with more than Marcus Bent’s seven league goals this season. Emile Hes-key has managed just four in 27 appearances. In such circumstances, Bruce must look to keep it tight and nick one on the break, or from a set piece, where Paul Scharner is always a threat.

If Wigan possess a potential matchwinner, it is Valencia, the right-winger from Ecuador who scored both goals against Villa last weekend and is fancied by United and Liverpool.

In the other game, Chelsea have been unbeaten at home in the league for so long now – more than four years – that it is almost impossible to envisage Bolton causing an upset.

Like Wigan, Bolton changed managers after a dreadful start to the season that saw them take just five points from their first nine games. Since then, under Gary Megson’s rod-of-iron supervision, they have stirred themselves in time to ward off relegation, beating West Ham, Middlesbrough and Sunderland and drawing at Tottenham in their past four matches.

However, like Wigan, they are short of goals. Selling Nicolas Anelka to today’s opponents in January left them without a striker worthy of the name, and a midfielder, Kevin Nolan, is their top scorer with five in 32 league games. El Hadji Diouf has contributed a paltry four goals in 33 appearances.

Chelsea are hardly in abundance themselves, Frank Lampard leading the way with 10 league goals to Didier Drogba’s eight, admittedly in only 18 matches, but Michael Ballack has hit form at the optimum time, notching four in his past six in all competitions, and it is impressively apparent that they had the bit firmly between their teeth when they saw off United, Liverpool and Newcastle in quick succession.

United remain the better side, and the smart money is on them, but then this is from a correspondent who lost his wad on Leeds all those years ago - and one who used to work for the Derby Evening Telegraph!

TV match Wigan v Man Utd

Today, Sky Sports 1, 2pm, kick-off 3pm