It also completed a black day for Spurs which had began badly when a food poisoning outbreak laid most of their squad low and threatened their match at Upton Park.

The Premier League insisted the game went ahead and Martin Jol was able to field a full-strength team.

Carl Fletcher put FA Cup finalists West Ham ahead after 10 minutes but Tottenham levelled through Jermain Defoe in the 35th.

FIERCE DRIVE

England goalkeeper Paul Robinson kept Spurs in it when he saved a 52nd-minute penalty by former Tottenham favourite Teddy Sheringham but he could do nothing to keep out Yossi Benayoun's fierce drive 10 minutes from time.

Manchester United had few problems chalking up the win they needed to avoid the risky qualification route into the Champions League.

They went ahead in the 19th minute when Louis Saha nodded in from a Ryan Giggs corner and the Welshman was the provider again four minutes later when Cristiano Ronaldo tucked in his low cross.

A Jason Euell own goal from a Saha cross in the 35th minute made it safe for United and Kieran Richardson capped it off with a fourth on the hour.

The only cloud over Old Trafford was over the future of Ruud van Nistelrooy, who left the ground before kickoff, apparently annoyed after discovering that young striker Giuseppe Rossi had been selected ahead of him.

Robbie Fowler, Peter Crouch and Djibril Cisse were on target for Liverpool at Portsmouth but it was not enough to overhaul United.

Titus Bramble scored the winner against Chelsea in the 73rd minute as Newcastle finished the season in seventh place.

Middlesbrough, who face Sevilla in the UEFA Cup final on Wednesday, fielded a team of 11 youngsters, 10 of them England youth internationals, and lost 1-0 at Fulham.

Relegated Sunderland ended a wretched season with a 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa that left them with just 15 points - the lowest tally ever from 20-team English league season and four worse than when they went down two years ago.