English Premiership Soccer: West Ham United Survives...for now.

Setting the controversial signings of Tevez and Mascherano aside, West Ham United needed at least a draw against Manchester United to remain in the Premiership next season. Also, it had to contend with Sheffield United and Wigan Athletic playing their last game with relegation on the line.

For the soccer/football newbies, if you play poorly, you get relegated (or demoted) to the lower divison. For English soccer, the Premiership is the first divison, the Championship is second division, and the third and fourth division are League 1 and 2 respectively. If you get relegated, you lose out on the tv rights, the sponsorship deals, and lower gate receipts. Some clubs would lose about 30 to 50 million pounds if they get relegated.

On Survival Sunday, Wigan Athletic defeated Sheffield United 2-1 at Bramall Lane while West Ham scored their first double (since 1977) against Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford. Thus, the happy Hammers ended up in 15th with 41 points. Wigan survived in 17th with 38 points with a goal difference of -22. Sheffield United was relegated being in 18th place with 38 points, but with a goal difference of -23.

If it were me, this ought to be decided on the pitch, and not in the courts. Yet, teams such as Sheffield United, Charlton, Wigan, Fulham, and Watford are looking into whether they should file legal action against the Premier League for failing to dock points from West Ham instead of a 5.5 million pound fine or in addition to it.

They are quite upset that the independent commission decided to levy a huge financial fine on West Ham for violating league rules and not a points deduction. They felt that West Ham was being given favoured treatment because they are such a popular club and that if it were Sheffield or Wigan, they would have gotten a points deduction. With nine games left, West Ham was 10 points from safety, so some felt that justice would be served if they keeping on playing poorly, they would get relegated the usual way.

But it did not turn out that way. West Ham went on to win seven matches out of nine. Sheffield only won 2 and drew once in the last nine games. Wigan only won once and drew three times in the their last nine.

I appreciate Wigan's win over Sheffield in order to survive. They are not a large-sized club and they had a rough time this season after doing a good job placing 10th last year. Yet they were not favourites to survive. It was actually Sheffield United. It was their last home game and usually they tend to win at home. To some fans and pundits, Sheffield United's manager Neil Warnock did not field a strong team for their last game and they lost.

But yet Warnock chooses to blame Manchester United for fielding a weak team against West Ham, bad referring decisions in the present game and in past games. He reluctantly admitted that he should have fielded a slightly stronger side against Wigan.

Manchester United Sir Alex Ferguson defended his team selection. "I feel for Sheffield United but we did our best and I don't think anyone can criticise us," argued Ferguson. "We had 25 strikes at goal, we had four shots knocked off the line and we had a stonewall penalty turned down. When Neil Warnock sees the stats of our game, he will understand we were unlucky." Honestly, I think Alex protected the integrity of the game. The team he fielded was quite strong with Wayne Rooney, Alan Smith, Michael Carrick, and John O'Shea. He even substituted Giggs, Ronaldo, and Scholes with about 30 minutes to go. C'mon here. ManU has their FA Cup Final match against Chelsea next week, so Sir Alex had to balance his priorities. Plus, they won the Premiership title the week before so this last game was not a huge thing on his list. To me, I think his side was pretty strong, and the Hammers were very lucky to win that match.

Honestly, Neil Warnock was bitching about Liverpool fielding a weak team, and but he was not complaining when he got a point from a draw. He was being so hypocritical. Look at your record. 10 wins, 8 draws, and 20 losses. Only 2 wins in your last nine games. You knew you had relegation looking right at you but your players did not produce. Stop blaming everyone else for your shortcomings.

Will West Ham be able play next season in the top flight? Sheffield United Chairman Kevin McCabe wants to take this to the European Human Rights Commission??? Could the courts ruin the Hammers' suvival efforts? Some folks feel the court proceedings will last throughout the summer and any decision would be made during next season. Yet, could the Premier League decide to send West Ham to the Championship if the season already started? One possible way is that West Ham would be given a points deduction at the start of next season.

Anyways, I am glad we proved ourselves on the pitch and not in the courts. If Sheffield gets their way, expect a long-lasting rivalry like Millwall.