Just three days after after scoring three times but leaving Old Trafford pointless, there was more late heartache for a beleaguered United at the Emirates on Saturday night. But if the last-gasp loss to the Red Devils was cause for both pride and frustration, then our fifth successive loss away from St.James' Park was rather more humiliating.

Once again United managed to work themselves into a position of sharing six goals at the three quarter mark but then proceeded to unravel alarmingly - conceding seven goals for the first time in league competition for over quarter of a century. Only this club could score six goals in two away games of this magnitude and end up empty-handed. 

We'd questioned what Alan Pardew's side had left in the tank after their Boxing Day exertions and they duly succumbed in the closing stages to a team granted a seven day Winter break after a Boxing Day tube strike (although Fulham and QPR managed to stage their games that day).

And it showed over the ninety minutes, although the Magpies were arguably the better side in the first half and enjoyed the majority of possession. Going behind to the flying machine that is Theo Walcott, the black and whites had spurned some good chances to level - notably from a rare Cheick Tiote effort that was on target - before a slice of luck deservedly took them in level at the break.

The Gunners regained the lead just five minutes after the interval but another valuable assist from Gabriel Obertan restored parity before we conceded - and they did. 3-3 and although a more objective judgment via the goggle box may have rightly been that we were drowning not waving, from the back of the away end there was genuine hope that we could go on to snatch a second famous victory on this ground in three seasons - not least due to a snoozing home defence.

But before Pardew's troops could regroup, some more sloppy defending allowed Walcott to break our spirit for the final time. What happened after that were a series of self-inflicted but truly cruel blows for a side that by then had gone from being on the ropes to KO'd out on the canvas. Walcott somehow managed to complete a hat trick while Giroud was denied a ten minute treble by a post.

Once the jaw-dropping, mind-numbing shock of the score subsided though, there were small glimmers of positivity among the wreckage - not least Marveaux and Bigirimana's displays and a seldom-glimpsed ability to score goals from close range. 

At the risk of hiding behind statistics, we're not the first side to have come a cropper here this season when the Gunners have found their fluidity as an attacking force - Spurs being hit for five and Southampton shipping six. Again though, it's the manner of our capitulation that raises more concerns about direction, unity and attitude - not to mention more tangible worries about personnel.

Having attracted criticism from various quarters (including us), no blame could be attached to Mike Williamson for any of the seven goals conceded here, as he served a one match suspension and was replaced by makeshift centre half James Perch. The lack of defensive options open to us could be gauged by a first naming of Remi Streete as a senior team substitute, the 18 year-old returning from a nine month injury absence to provide notional cover at centre half.

When bemusement at having scored six goals on the road in rapid sequence but leaving empty -handed subsides, the stark facts are that United have lost eight of our last ten Premier League games and sit just three points clear of the drop zone as the second half of the season begins.

Everton's visit to Tyneside in four days time will test the strength of the squad again, but at least our Goodison comeback earlier in the season was an indication of this team's ability to bounce back - albeit with the forward presence of Demba Ba to dig us out of several holes. 

The variable performances of Fabricio Coloccini are the latest concern in a squad where players enjoying both form and fitness are a rare commodity, while question marks over the effectiveness of his leadership remain. The loss of Tiote to the Ivory Coast leaves us with a further midfield gap to be plugged - although after a performance like this, we're glad to see the back of him frankly.

Our irritation at some of our substitutions this season meanwhile was evident again when Simpson was replaced by Ferguson - although the broken toe suffered by the former wasn't known at that point. What is crystal clear though is that Shane is no more of a left back than Charles N'Zogbia ever was and to pretend otherwise is unfair on him - and us.

But the cupboard is bare though, with not even Jonas available to fill in. The much-vaunted plan of having players for every position at different levels in the club exists on paper but not in flesh and blood. The left back in most recent reserve game is now out on loan - at Blyth Spartans.  

Pardew did kindly confirmed that he wasn't trying to make a point to his employers by including the totally unproven and only recently fit-again teenage centre half Remi Streete on the bench, just in case anyone hadn't spotted he'd done precisely that - the other course of action was to name less than seven subs as Sam Allardyce had done ten days earlier.

Kevin Keegan once tried to make a similar point on this ground by including Nile Ranger on the bench just days after his U18 debut but hopefully the current Magpies boss will be rather more successful in getting his desired reinforcements in January - the ones he needed in August, we mean.

A mixed bag of results at the bottom of the table on Saturday meant that Newcastle remain fifteenth but Wigan, Southampton and Reading closed the gap while Aston Villa, Fulham and the mackems also tasted defeat.

When we next take to the field, the three teams immediately below us will have been in action and an admittedly long-odds trio of victories for Villa, Wigan and the Saints would be enough to drop us into the bottom three for the first time since May 2009.   

PS: I don't want to start any blasphemous rumours, but somebody at SJP has a sick sense of humour. The first post-match email we received was entitled "Newcastle United Lingerie Reduced Now!" Unwanted confirmation that it wasn't just the team caught with their pants down...

Biffa