Souness out to silence Gunners

Disappointingly for a club with the second biggest ground in the country, Newcastle lie 12th in the table and their points tally of 29 is exactly half that of runaway leaders Chelsea and 19 less than second-placed Arsenal.

Wenger, though, has endured a torrid seven days. Last Saturday his team lost for the third time this season against a team they would expect to beat, Bolton Wanderers. The 1-0 defeat featured a master class in hesitant goalkeeping by Arsenal’s Spaniard Manuel Almunia, controversially preferred to outspoken German international Jens Lehmann.

Wenger was then forced to answer questions about the latest barrage of insults emanating from Old Trafford as the bad blood from the October ‘Battle of the Buffet’ boiled over again.

Having been described as a ‘‘disgrace’’ by Ferguson for not apologising over the conduct of his players after the 2-0 defeat, Wenger probably had it about right when he observed: ‘‘He is going out looking for a confrontation, then asking the person he is confronting to apologise.’’

Wily Ferguson, however, knows timing is all in the psychological warfare of soccer and this was the perfect moment to rile a stuttering rival before United’s visit to Highbury on February 1. Both Ferguson and Wenger were told by their respective clubs on Thursday to end their war of words and the Arsenal manager must quickly refocus on the business of point-winning against Newcastle.

The 10-point gap — 13 if Chelsea win at home to Portsmouth on Saturday — at the top is not going to melt away with the January frost and Arsenal probably have to win all of their remaining 15 games to have any hope of catching their London rivals.

Three weeks ago Arsenal won 1-0 at Newcastle and they have not lost any of their last eight matches against the North-East club.

Wenger may swallow his pride and recall Lehmann, who has been critical of the Frenchman’s selection policy. ‘‘We lacked determined effort in the final third and we didn’t show great security in our defending’’, was his assessment of the Bolton loss. Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp and Spaniard Jose Antonio Reyes are pushing for places in the starting line-up alongside French 16-goal top scorer Thierry Henry. Newcastle will again to be without combative midfielder Nicky Butt, who suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury in training this week. Reuters