Arsenal struggling against a team fighting against relegation is annoyingly predictable.

Newcastle performed amazingly on Saturday against a lethargic Arsenal team and although we weren’t quite as bad as many are claiming, we were far from our best. The Magpies completely overran our midfield and made us look as if we were playing with 10 men at times.

Wenger praised Newcastle post-match and added that it was a huge mental battle for us, which we could learn from.

“Newcastle played well,” the boss said.

“We showed the mental aspect of our team and we will need that.”

The difference between Saturday’s match and other similar performances is that we actually managed to get a goal and win. In the past, we would have drawn and considered ourselves lucky. This goes to show that the mental aspect of our game that Wenger’s talking about has improved.

Winning ugly is all part of title campaigns. It’s unrealistic to expect us to be playing stunning, perfect football all of the time and the fact that we managed to win ugly is huge.