The Sheffield Wednesday band played on valiantly but, just like the musicians on the Titanic, the ship was going down around them despite a rollercoaster second-half at Highbury in which the Owls surrendered a two-goal lead.

At least, as Wednesday's relegation to the First Division was finally confirmed beyond any mathematical doubt after a 3-3 draw against Arsenal, the Yorkshire side went down amid something of a fight.

But in a final 12-minute spell which effectively summed up their season, they succumbed to overwhelming pressure as their defence disappeared without trace.

In what eventually proved to be an incredible game of twisting fortunes, Arsenal had seized a 35th-minute lead through Lee Dixon and appeared to be cantering to victory as Wednesday hardly put up a murmur of defiance.

However, there was a dramatic turnaround in 12 astonishing second-half minutes as the Owls were finally sparked into life by a 56th-minute double-substitution.

Strikers Gilles De Bilde and Gerald Sibon both scored within four minutes of their arrival and then youngster Alan Quinn put them 3-1 up and seemingly in sight of an unlikely victory.

But although Wednesday may come from the City of Steel, the Owls proved just how brittle they have become as they fell apart from that moment on.

For while the celebrated Owls' band, who were more passionate than their team throughout, may have humorously struck up "we'll meet again" at one point, even they did not have the nerve to play the 'Great Escape' when their side was ahead.

Perhaps they knew from bitter experience just what was coming.

First Silvinho put Arsenal back into the game with a thunderbolt strike with just 12 minutes left and then Thierry Henry levelled the game with his 12th goal in 10 games just over a minute later.

And Wednesday, who were fortunate not to concede at least one more goal in the final few minutes, had therefore caved in yet again.

The real damage was, of course, self-inflicted much earlier this season, with just one point from their opening nine games of the season - in which they scored just three times.

With the lowest of many low points being the 8-0 thrashing by a Newcastle side themselves in relegation trouble at the time, even four Sheffield MPs controversially waded into the debate, calling for chairman Dave Richards to go.

Eventually he did, with manager Danny Wilson following him soon afterwards, but it was far too late to erase the writing on the wall.

And even though the team rallied briefly under his successor Shreeves, beating Chelsea and Wimbledon last month, a 4-1 defeat at Coventry last Saturday all but confirmed their fate.

There certainly seemed to be an element of looking ahead to a more homegrown policy next season, or at least admitting that many of their overseas signings had simply not worked out, in the starting line-up at Highbury.

Belgian striker De Bilde and Swedish midfielder Niclas Alexandersson were both dropped in favour of Steven Haslam and Danny Sonner, while Sibon was on the bench.

Wednesday certainly could not blame a lack of vocal support but, then again, listening to their band in full flow was far more interesting than actually watching an incredibly low tempo first-half.

As far as Arsenal were concerned, it was understandably little more than the perfect, low-key run-out ahead of the UEFA Cup final at that stage as the slip-ups by both Liverpool and Leeds over the previous two days had already assured them of second place.

Although they did field a largely full-strength side, with only Tony Adams and Emmanuel Petit being rested, their team-mates simply went through the motions for at least the opening half-hour.

Wednesday had started with just Andy Booth up front in a match they had to win and they did not have a single effort on target in the first-half.

It was therefore something of a relief when some long-overdue inspiration was finally provided by Henry as he struck the inside of the post with a right-foot effort and then turned provider for Dixon.

Having beaten Ian Nolan to the byline, keeper Kevin Pressman failed to intercept his powerful cross-shot and the right-back athletically stretched full-length at the far post to bundle the ball back across the goal-line from the tightest of angles.

Wednesday were revived into life by the long-overdue introduction of strikers Sibon and De Bilde, and - within two minutes - Sibon rose to meet Wim Jonk's corner and power a header past David Seaman on 58 minutes.

Just two minutes later, De Bilde then played a neat one-two with Booth before striding through a static Arsenal defence to slot his shot underneath Seaman's body.

Sibon missed another clear opening soon afterwards but it appeared not to have mattered when De Bilde then put Quinn through and the 20-year-old midfielder nonchalantly went round Seaman before firing home.

That appeared to be it, with Wednesday being left with the faintest of chances of staying up, but nothing could have stopped the ferocious drive which Silvinho launched with his left foot into the roof of the net with just 12 minutes left.

Even then, it seemed as if Wednesday might hang on but that was reckoning without Henry, who struck a superb curling effort past the despairing dive of Pressman after Marc Overmars had laid the ball back to him.

The final few minutes saw Arsenal lay siege to the Wednesday goal, with Bergkamp striking two shots narrowly wide and having another effort tipped around the post, Patrick Vieira flashing a header just off target and Kanu almost skimming the top of the bar.

Wednesday somehow hung on for a draw but it was not enough.

They had showed too little spirit, too late and even an Arsenal side with nothing to play for had managed to punish a defence which is simply not up to the rigours of the Premiership.

Teams:

Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Keown, Luzhny, Winterburn (Silvinho 63), Parlour (Bergkamp 46), Grimandi, Vieira, Overmars, Henry, Kanu.

Subs Not Used: Manninger, Malz, Vernazza.

Goals: Dixon 34, Silvinho 78, Henry 79.

Sheff Wed: Pressman, Atherton, Walker, Nolan, Hinchcliffe, Sonner (De Bilde 56), Jonk, Haslam (Sibon 56), Horne (Briscoe 83), Booth, Quinn.

Subs Not Used: Humphreys, Srnicek.

Goals: Sibon 58, De Bilde 60, Quinn 70.

Att: 37,271

Ref: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees).