Half time: Gunners 0 Magpies 0

72 mins A home corner delivered by Ozil was headed straight up into the air by Paul Dummett and when Olivier Giroud beat Fabricio Coloccini to head goalwards, last man Ayoze Perez was caught flat-footed. The ball fell kindly for Laurent Koscielny to poke it past past Rob Elliot from four yards at the north end of the stadium. 0-1

Full time: Gunners 1 Magpies 0

Arsene Wenger: 

"It was a difficult game against a good Newcastle side.

"Our legs were a little bit heavy today, overall we were tested against a team that has a lot of technical quality. You have to say 'let's stick together and try and win the game if we can', the mental aspect of our game was tested today.

"Not to drop points when you play like we did today is important. It helps the team as well, we will go through the season with moments where we don't play well and memories of doing that before helps you hang on some times.

"I know that when you are capable of winning when you don't play well, that shows a mental aspect of your team that will be very important in moments that will be difficult.

"I think we are more experienced than the teams I had when I moved into the stadium here. On our day we could play everybody off the park and when you had to dig deep you experience it was a bit more difficult. It was different.

"Now, the experience, the quality of their attitude, the team always has the charisma. If you look at the team as a unit, it is like person. If you look at your team like a person and the vibes that are coming out - you can sense in this job if you feel it or not.

"I must say (you see) another aspect of your team in a game like (this one). It is more the mental aspect - you fight, don’t panic and wait for your chance. We were more questioned on that aspect than the way we played football.

"I also believe that everyone else’s organisation has improved. What is even more (surprising) is physically you won games in maybe the last 20 minutes when you were superior technically. That is not the case anymore.

"When you go forward, the team against you in transition always has the resources to come out and kill you. Look at the players who come on. They always have the quality to finish you off when you go for it. That is something new.”

About Petr Cech:

"He made two big saves. One in the first half and one at the beginning of the second, on top of that he gives calm and never panics and today we needed that."
 

And when Gini was through on goal three minutes after the break, he seemed a certain scorer but he shot straight at Cech with the goal gaping. Just seconds later Ayoze Perez crossed for Mitrovic and he skied the ball off his thigh at the near post from point blank range. Not impressive.

Those misses looked costly almost immediately as Aaron Ramsey nearly caught out the fit-again Rob Elliot who grabbed the ball low to his left, Arsenal belatedly trying to make an impact after failing to create anything of note -  presumably lulled into a false sense of security by our lowly position.    

Mbemba had a free header that he got all wrong and skewed it well wide and six minutes later the misses did indeed prove to be expensive as Koscielny steered the ball past Elliot from close range.

But far from buckling under pressure United pushed for an equaliser and Mitrovic again made contact in front of goal, only to head narrowly over from a Perez cross. Wijnaldum did the same from a short corner and with seconds remaining substitute Siem de Jong saw Cech grasp his overhead kick.

Victories for West Bromwich Albion, Norwich City, the mackems and Chelsea added to the misery while Bournemouth gained a point at Leicester City. Only defeats for Swansea City and Aston Villa prevented a weekend of total disaster, but United's new year message is a simple one: 

SOS - Save our season - and SAS: sign a striker - who can hit the ground (and the net) running.

And to hell with the cost. There's more than TV money at stake here and watching the pennies this month will be the ultimate false economy. With even the most diehard supporter clinging on to hope of an upturn, screwing that up will have a devastating effect on the future of this club. People don't need any more encouragement to walk away than they've had in the last three years 

It isn't 2009 and we don't have a divine right to waltz back up. The Championship is a different animal now and the list of grand old clubs living in reduced circumstances is a lengthy one. 

There's nowt else left to say except that if Charnley is going to renege on one promise, let it be the one about trying in the FA Cup this season. The endless replays may now be consigned to history, but the memory of what facing the Hornets in 1989 took out of us remains. Sorry.

Biffa