The only questions I have after that are: why can’t we play like that every game? Why weren’t Emre and Enrique brought on to aid some severely tired legs (Butt and Barton, to name but two)? And why was the Viduka substitution a sole act, which deprived us even further of width on the right flank? These aside, the support was magnificent, the effort was unmatched by anything I’ve seen at St. James’ for a while and a lot of players had very good games. Beye, Milner and Smith were three that particularly stood out for me – the former Marseille captain looks better with every game.

Rozehnal looked the most suspect, Barton’s passing was pretty poor, Butt was more laboured than usual at times because of illness, we barely saw any of Charlie Zog in their half and Martins was at his infuriating worst while in possession. Despite these minor gripes, we dug in and showed a united front against an injury-stricken Arsenal team – don’t forget we’ve got our share of big players missing too, though – and they did not like it one bit.

The massive cheer at the end was surely more for the nature of the performance than the result – I heard two Arsenal fans today wrongly claiming a 1-1 draw was like “a trophy win” for us – because I’m sure I’m not the only one disappointed that we didn’t snatch three points from the unbeaten Gunners. There was a game a few years back under Robson when Arsenal were in the middle of their unbeaten season which Wenger later claimed was the “most fearful” he’d been of losing that record as we battered them from pillar to post – I wonder if last night brought back some of those memories for the best manager in English football.

All-in-all, I’m verging more on the upper-end of “satisfied” than being completely happy, mainly down to the result, but if we play like that against the so-called “lesser lights” of the Premiership – Birmingham City for starters – then we’ll have no bother attaining a top-ten finish this season. As it stands the league is divided into a few sections, the usual contenders, the battle for sixth, the battle for 10th/11th (West Ham and ourselves) and the relegation battle below us – obviously this will change a great deal before those 38 games are up and on this evidence, we should be pushing onto the next level.

Great stuff, but it means nowt if we don’t beat Birmingham with a similar performance.

We seemed to have a plan and know what we were doing tonight, and this was the first game for a long time in which we went forward with confidence and took the game to Arsenal.

Tonight we showed passion and guts and matched Arsenal every step of the way, no mean feit considering both our recent form and the fact that Arsenal are league leaders and still unbeaten.

But…. let’s not go jumping the gun here. It would be easy to say that we’ve turned the corner and that we’re going to keep on improving. That might be the case, and naturally I hope that is what happens. Please please please don’t let this be a flash in the pan, all guns blazing response to the recent comments and discord before we go sliding back into our old ways. Only the next few games will tell which of the two this is.

Alan Smith, who has been rendered little better than useless for much of the season so far is suddenly looking much better in his natural position up front. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that players and teams perform much better when everyone is playing in the right position. We still have problems though. I’m still not happy with the midfield, as it’s still lacking width. We looked lop-sided with one winger and three central players clogging up the middle of the park, while the right side was left bare. I still don’t get it. We need both N’Zogbia and Milner down the wings, yet Charlie is being wasted at left back - crying out and straining at the leish to get forward, while a real centre back, Jose Enrique sits on the bench - work that one out. Furthermore, when Adebayor put Arsenal into the lead, it was because of a mistake that N’Zogbia made. It’s not Charlie’s fault - he’s as much of a left back as Allardyce is an anorexic. Howay, Sam, stop it and put Charlie on the elft wing and Enrique at left back.

It’s hard to grasp the fact that a team could play so different in three different games in the same stadium. They were truly up for it on Wednesday. They played Arsenal off the park, and were unlucky not to win. The Taylor goal was well taken and it certainly wasn’t the only chance.

Arsenal were terrible. They kept giving the ball away and the Magpies capitalised on this for sure. The crowd were amazing again as well - the message has really sunk in and everyone at the club is ready to give it a go.

This could be the start of the turnaround for the club. Alan Smith was simply fantastic. He completely summed up the entire evening; a strong, determined performance, fighting for the shirt and fighting for the fans.

We need to build on it though against Birmingham. Three points then and the sky’s the limit…