On The Premiership: The hard-bitten Premiership should be no place for dreamers, but in Wigan they have been indulging in fantasy football all season. A jet-propelled start to the campaign has shown little sign of losing momentum, and now the town is abuzz with whispers of top-six finishes and European tours.

Wigan's chief fantasist is Dave Whelan, the ebullient chairman who spends his time zig-zagging between Lancashire and Barbados. Last week he suggested the club which almost exited the Football League in 1994 should target a spot in the Uefa Cup once the immediate goal of survival has been achieved this season.

Whelan's remarks must have drawn a grimace from his exceptional manager, Paul Jewell, who has always maintained that the club should not try to run before they can walk. Wigan may have knocked down some heavyweights this season, but Saturday's 3-0 drubbing by local rivals Blackburn was a timely reminder of how far they still have to travel.

But, as Jewell admitted after that defeat, Whelan and Wigan's fans are "entitled to dream" and, regardless of where they finish, the club can be proud of their first season in the top flight.

Their open, adventurous style has yielded a glut of goals, even if Jewell will be concerned at how his defence has undergone a Scrooge-like transformation over the festive period from penny-pinchers to philanthropists.

But more importantly, Wigan have brought honesty, humour and humility to a league which takes itself far too seriously.

Their delight in pricking Premiership pomp was encapsulated by Whelan's decision to halve the price of pies for Saturday's game at the JJB Stadium, an entirely appropriate way of displaying Lancastrian solidarity.

The success of Wigan - and, for that matter, fellow newbies West Ham - does not just provide succour for the romantics. It also administers a much-needed shot in the arm to a league which was in danger of growing stale. After the predictable travails of last season's promoted trio, all of whom finished in the bottom four, the sight of "little Wigan" lording it in the top six should reassure the Championship's front-runners that promotion is not a complete waste of time.

It has also scared witless some of the Premiership's more established forces. Clubs which had been lulled into a state of idle complacency by the knowledge that the three promoted clubs would always provide a safety net against relegation have had that reassurance ripped away.

Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Fulham, Portsmouth and Birmingham - all of which have spent much of their recent history wallowing pointlessly in mid-table - suddenly find they are an endangered species, and that can only be for the better.

For all its obsession with money and image, the Premiership is an organic entity, and without regular reinvigoration from new blood, it will wither. A competition which is predictable is no competition at all, and while Chelsea's march towards a second consecutive title is unrelenting, the gloriously unexpected success of Wigan and West Ham has saved the bottom end of the league from that fate.

Sunderland may just be waiting for mathematical confirmation of their fate, but the new year promises to yield the most engrossing relegation battle in memory, if only because the teams involved have had scant recent experience of such tawdry squabbles.

Some will pull clear before May. Villa's attack may boast the potency of watery Buck's Fizz, but they have sufficient quality to ensure survival. The same applies to Middlesbrough, although they will have to ensure that the distraction of their Uefa Cup run does not make them slide any further into trouble.

For the others, spring promises nothing but strife. Fulham have accumulated a paltry three points from a possible 33 away from home, and if their record at Craven Cottage begins to slip, a five-year residence in the top flight could end.

Birmingham have suffered the exact opposite, with their efforts to lift themselves out of trouble impeded by a truly awful record at St Andrews.

Demotion would be a poor return for the millions Steve Bruce spent in the summer, and the goodwill he has enjoyed from his board may suddenly run dry if he does not engineer a revival.

Bryan Robson will also feel the heat at West Brom if he cannot pull the Baggies clear of danger for a second consecutive season.

All three clubs will have been made more fidgety by the stirrings of a revival at Portsmouth, who have stacked up seven points in four games since Harry Redknapp's return to Fratton Park last month, although Pompey's visit to Blackburn today will be revealing.

Relegation scraps are football's car-crash entertainment: desperate for those involved, but morbidly engrossing for those lucky enough to pass by unscathed.

The crowd of onlookers will surely swell once Chelsea's triumph is confirmed, but, in Wigan, Dave Whelan can still dare to dream.