Victor Moses would provide Wigan's best attempt of the game on 86 minutes

Well, what do you say after an afternoon like that? As little as possible, hopefully, which is why I’ll keep this assessment of the encounter at Stamford Bridge relatively brief.

After all, there isn’t really that much to talk about in the way of Wigan positives: this was, to all intents and purposes, Chelsea’s day. I think we’ll leave it at that.

And so it transpired that a season of dizzy heights and demoralising lows (wait, haven’t I used that phrase, like, ten times in the last week?) would run true to form and conclude with one of the latter, another crushing defeat to add to the spankings at White Hart Lane, Fratton Park, Old Trafford and Bloomfield Road. Yep, a real afternoon to completely wipe from your memory with one of those flashy light things out of Men In Black.

In truth, nobody really expected a result in the favour of Wigan. Many in the North West hoped things might go their way, but in the land of Realism you could count those anticipating a draw or Wigan win on one hand. Even though it turned out to be yet another horrible, horrible hammering you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy (well, maybe Preston), there is significantly less shame (though blame might well be a different matter) to be attributed in this particular case. After all, these were the Premier League champions we came up against.

There was some pre-match hope, swiflty extinguished by the impartial Sky Sports pundits. Quick to state the obvious and stamp the mockers on Latics from the off, the ever-alert Glenn Hoddle so kindly reminded us all — as if we needed to be — of WhiteHartLaneGate. Cheers, Glenn. You don’t need to be a faith healer to count up to ten.

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Not-so-quietly confident: Carlo Ancelotti

Once again, it has come down to this. Just like in 2008, Little Wigan find themselves with an opportunity to have a big say in where the title goes on the final day of the season, embarking upon a 200-odd mile trip to London in a bid to usurp Chelsea’s dominant position at the head of the table.

This time, however, things are going to be far more difficult, because of injuries to important players but also, perhaps most tellingly, because Chelsea are such a formidable force when in full flow – just ask Stoke City. Not that Manchester United of a few years ago weren’t, even if they left it later than they would have liked to clinch the Premier League at the then-JJB Stadium.

As we have seen, though, no side is completely infallible. It may seem Chelsea have nine and a half fingers on the fabled trophy — which isn’t quite as historically significant as the FA Cup, but a recognisable item in the world of football nevertheless — but you need only cast your mind back to September 2009 for an example of a major upset in this contest. By which I mean tiny Wigan beating gigantic Chelsea.

Sure, that particular David vs. Goliath showdown was at the JJB and not a hostile Stamford Bridge as it will be tomorrow. And there was no title at stake. And you could say Latics had the rub of the green that day, which certainly helped our cause. All of which points to a more comfortable day for Chelsea as they cruise to 2010 Premier League victory.

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Stojkovic takes the phrase 'Jesus Was a Wiganer' a bit too literally

With Latics’ survival sealed prior to this afternoon’s engagement, it only remained to be seen whether Hull would absolutely trounce them to carry a sliver of hope into the final week of the season.

Well, this didn’t happen and, if we’re being honest, wasn’t really likely to, but thanks to the antics of a certain Serbian, it may well have been. In terms of possession and control of the game, the visitors never really outplayed a Latics side missing N’Zogbia, Bramble, Kirkland, Moreno and Thomas. But stand-in keeper Vladimir Stojkovic, who looked very shaky in the Wigan goal, could be blamed for at least one of the goals the Tigers would claw from the very hands of Wigan’s backline; in truth, had Hull challenged the opposition goalmouth more often, things could have been far worse.

In the cold light of day, a draw against a pretty-much-relegated side also with their fair share of absentees –most notably a particular Londonite who can’t stand the North (just joking Jimmy)–, was an average result played out by, some might say, an average team. It certainly wasn’t a sparkling performance from the Latics, and had there been more weight on this game things would have been far past ‘squeaky bum time’ (for which I daren’t print an analogy) midway through the second half as Wigan somehow contrived to concede two goals.

There is a small excuse – and it is quite a small one – for the first: a slightly overzealous linesman flagging offside before changing his mind after the ball was nestling in the Wigan net, which he had every right to do. He was proven to be right in his error correction, but there’s no doubt it caused an element of confusion amongst Caldwell, Gohouri et al as for a moment Latics were guilty of playing to the whistle.

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