Manchester Utd 0 West Ham Utd 1: The Premiership trophy is back in Manchester United's possession but the euphoria inside Old Trafford was perhaps at its greatest in the corner housing West Ham's boisterous fans.

It has been an epic recovery, and the celebrations from Alan Curbishley and his players suggest they will not spend the summer fretting over the possibility of legal reprisals from the so-called Gang of Four.

This was only the second time this season United have lost on their ground and it finished as a love-in, one of those rare occasions when both sets of supporters could head home feeling invigorated. As West Ham's joyous following celebrated the implications of Carlos Tevez's decisive goal, the home supporters stayed behind for the trophy to be brought on to the pitch by half a dozen members of Matt Busby's title-winning 1955-56 side.

Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs took a handle each to thrust it into the air and for half an hour Old Trafford was in party mode. Wayne Rooney was in a jester's hat, Cristiano Ronaldo had a Portuguese flag tied round his shoulders and Alex Ferguson, wearing an over-sized cap reading "Champions 2007" and combining his role as manager with that of proud grandfather, was surrounded by enough of his "bairns" on the lap of honour to form another team.

The lingering image, however, was of Eggert Magnusson's scream of joy at the final whistle and his apparent desire to bearhug anyone within 15 yards of him in the directors' box. Colleagues, friends, well-wishers and complete strangers all got a squeeze from the West Ham chairman.

The mood was light and jovial but, when the dust has settled, there will be a long analysis of the fairness of West Ham's survival and maybe also the rights and wrongs of Ferguson's selection.

Ferguson, lest it be forgotten, had promised last week that he would not field a weakened team because of his "respect" for Wigan Athletic and Sheffield United, and it did not seem at the time as if he had his fingers crossed behind his back.

At some point the United manager changed his mind, with Ronaldo, Giggs and Paul Scholes starting on the bench. There was no sign of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic was an unused substitute. Ferguson is entitled to regard Saturday's FA Cup final against Chelsea as his priority as he attempts to win another double, but his selection broke a very important promise and did West Ham a huge favour.

"They couldn't have come to Old Trafford on a better day," Ferguson acknowledged. "We had already won the league and the edge was off our game.

"Nonetheless we still had 25 shots on goal. I think we did our best and I don't think people can criticise us. I feel for Neil Warnock and Sheffield United but, when he sees the statistics, he will know we were very unlucky to lose."

Ferguson was certainly entitled to argue that it was a "one-horse race" in the first half. Or at least until the board went up indicating that there would be two minutes of stoppage-time, because it was here that the visitors scored a goal that had never seemed likely during the preceding 45 minutes.

Robert Green's long goal-kick was headed down to Tevez by Bobby Zamora. Tevez played a quick one-two, benefited from a lucky break as he surged past Wes Brown and, when a looping ball dropped into his path, the Argentina international had the calmness and the technical ability to finish from a difficult angle.

Until that point Curbishley's players had been penned in their half, indebted to goalline clearances and United's careless finishing.

A similar pattern was expected for the second half and United re-emerged to cries of "send them down" from the Stretford End. But the champions fell flat.

Ferguson was justified in complaining that United were denied "a stonewall penalty" when Luis Boa Morte slid into John O'Shea, but West Ham's defenders coped well in the closing exchanges.

Curbishley could later reflect on seven wins out of the last nine matches and the celebrations from those in claret and blue at the end were long and raucous.

• Guardian Service