Newcastle United 0 Chelsea 2: Ballack drives Chelsea onward to set up tightest of title finales

They are the shadow across Old Trafford. Their pursuit of Manchester United has been relentless and they will not be flicked aside to accommodate a convenient procession for Sir Alex Ferguson's would-be champions. If Chelsea told us one thing yesterday, it is that United will have to beat Wigan Athletic on Sunday to be sure of the title because these boys in blue are in no mood to capitulate until the very last moment of the season.

The Premier League title race goes to the last day with the two main protagonists level on points for the first time in the top flight since 1968 – when Manchester City edged out Manchester United for the title.

Ferguson can never have believed that it would be a matter of goal difference that would separate his team from the rest but that is in all likelihood what he must hope for, because no one seriously believes that the great blue machine will falter at home to Bolton Wanderers on Sunday. For Ferguson it will be like winning an election on second preference votes, but by now he will settle for victory on any terms.

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Avram Grant's team are the form side of the Premier League, rumbling along like the Jose Mourinho team of old and seemingly capable of everything but overturning a Manchester United goal difference that is 17 goals better off than their own. Chelsea will need a cricket score to win the title if United beat Wigan – a margin of 18 goals should do it if Ferguson's team win, let's say, 1-0.

But there is plenty for Ferguson to worry about should his side not rise to the occasion at Wigan. The JJB Stadium is not exactly regarded as one of English football's most passionate crucibles of history and pride, but come Sunday it will be the stage for a cliffhanger of a game of such significance that Ferguson's old end-of-season "squeaky bum" description does not do it justice.

There is nothing for Chelsea to lose and everything for Manchester United to toss away. If Ferguson's team blow it, then their trauma will undoubtedly set the tone for the European Cup final in Moscow 10 days later. He is up against Steve Bruce, the Wigan manager and a Manchester United player for nine years of his distinguished career. Bruce left United in 1996 with his third Premiership winners' medal, although not before he had seen his club throw away a title at Upton Park the year before when they failed to beat West Ham and ceded the league to Blackburn Rovers on the last day of the season.

With a win Bruce's team could still take 12th place from Newcastle, although if Wigan are victorious on Sunday it is fair to say that will not be what everyone remembers from the day.

It is Grant who has won 15 and drawn five of his last 20 Premier League games, an extraordinary record in anyone's terms. Yesterday the Chelsea manager protested that his team were "human beings, not computers" when he was asked to explain their below-par first-half performance.

In the second half they played much more as if they had been programmed by computer, unyielding and remorseless in their dispatching of Newcastle.

Once again it was Michael Ballack, a man who epitomises the vorsprung durch technik element of Chelsea better than any other and the man who scored his side's first goal. The Germany international is flourishing at the end of the season, driving his team on, and ironically it may have much to do with what happened at St James' Park a little more than a year ago that has played a part in his rejuvenation.

On 22 April 2007 he was carried off the pitch with a chipped bone in his left ankle that threatened to end his career. He did not play again for Chelsea until 19 December and is performing now like a player who is reaching the peak of this season rather than one who is hanging on for dear life at the end. This was his third goal in his last two league games, including the two in the win over Manchester United 10 days ago. Ballack's goal just after the hour was simply nodded past Steve Harper with the merest twist of his neck, a beautifully worked free-kick from the right from Didier Drogba that found its target perfectly. Perfect in so much as the Ivorian had only to stagger his run-up slightly to confuse the Newcastle players in the area. It was those Manchester United old boys Nicky Butt and Alan Smith whom Ballack eluded so easily and in that moment was distilled much of Newcastle's insipid performance.

Michael Owen did have a shot cleared off the line by John Terry in the 28th minute but that was really Newcastle's only attack of any note. They bid their farewell to St James' Park for the season at the end of the game with a kind of embarrassment – so desperate had much of this game, the second half in particular, been for them. Kevin Keegan's name boomed down from the stands, the devotion of his own supporters the one thing the Newcastle manager has that Grant could conceivably envy.

Even so, Grant meddled with the Chelsea team at his peril yesterday. Nicolas Anelka was sent out to play on the right side of midfield and did a good job of playing himself out of contention for the European Cup final team.

He will not be eligible to play against Bolton under the terms of his January transfer. The biggest worry for Grant will be the back injury to Ricardo Carvalho which forced his substitution. He is one player they cannot be without in Moscow. Florent Malouda tucked in the second goal eight minutes from time when he was played in by Frank Lampard who started the game on the bench.

From an inauspicious start, Chelsea had taken this game by the throat and come to dominate it. In that sense it was rather like the title race itself, although in that particular competition it is Manchester United who hold the whip hand. They, after all, have the goal difference. But it is Chelsea who have the momentum.

Goals: Ballack (61) 0-1; Malouda (82) 0-2.

Newcastle United (4-3-1-2): Harper; Beye, Taylor, Faye, Enrique (N'Zogbia, 78); Geremi (Duff, 71), Butt, Barton; Owen; Viduka (Smith, h-t), Martins. Substitutes not used: Cacapa, Forster (gk).

Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cech; Ferreira, Carvalho (Alex, 79), Terry, Bridge; Mikel; Anelka (Lampard, 66), Essien, Ballack, Malouda; Drogba (Shevchenko, 86). Substitutes not used: J Cole, Cudicini (gk).

Referee: S Bennett (Kent).

Booked: Newcastle Faye, Enrique; Chelsea Terry, Malouda.

Man of the match: Ballack.

Attendance: 52,305.

United or Chelsea?

To win the title, Chelsea must win while Manchester United lose or draw, or draw while Manchester United lose. If both teams win, lose or draw, Manchester United will win the title owing to their vastly superior goal difference.