For United it’s win or bust in a crunch week
IF a life raft is ever to appear on a bleak, darkened and windswept horizon then it had better be now.
There is no more time to allow the agony and humiliation to continue unabated.
Norwich City here tomorrow night must be beaten.
Burnley up on Saturday must also be put to the sword. No ifs or buts. No more stories of being badly done to or jinxed.
If six points are not delivered then Championship football will be on our doorstep. It will follow as night follows day.
Lots of money or not, new owners or not, a new manager or not.
The world of football is harsh and the harsh facts are staring us in the face.
What you sow so shall you reap and Mike Ashley, aided and abetted by Steve Bruce, has sown plenty in terms of doubts and disasters.
The tide cannot be turned in such dire circumstances simply by a change in off-field personnel.
If Norwich are somehow going to be put to the buck then those of reputation like Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin must impose themselves much more than they did in north London.
Wilson owes all Geordies a big game and there will never be a much more needy occasion.
Big games require big players and if you wish to be seen as such then you deliver when it is critically required.
This is not against Chelsea, Manchester City or Liverpool who are all vastly superior to Arsenal but Norwich from t’other end of the division.
What happened at the Emirates was totally predictable to long-suffering Geordies.
A defence which had leaked 27 goals in a dozen matches was always likely to give up another two even if the returning Martin Dubravka brought something positive to the table.
I sat among the Gooners and suffered as we expected to suffer on the 13th Premier League encounter of the season without the satisfaction of victory.
I was experiencing something new not sitting in the supposedly unbiased press box but among rival supporters who took great glee in our predicament.
It was not a pleasant experience. The match or the atmosphere.
Such a barren landscape is tough on Geordies who seem to be doomed to experience what is not deserved, at least by them, but foisted upon them by those now banished to memory.
History was not on our side. Defeat had been automatic on the last 10 visits and this season a win had never once been experienced whatever the opposition.
Put the two together and what was going to happen?
I was where I was, I should explain, because I was in London for an early Christmas reunion with my youngest daughter Claire whose partner Tony is an Arsenal fan and my grandson Max is, well, split between both clubs.
They have three season tickets at the Emirates and were more than happy for me to be the sacrificial lamb. Sadly I was.
Even during a goalless first-half I waited apprehensively for the floodgates to open at some point.
Three of the flat back four ended up booked as they attempted to turn the tide with as much success as King Canute and two of them - Jamaal Lascelles and Matt Ritchie - will now be suspended for the massive match with Norwich.
However both have been dreadfully poor of late.
Who can argue they will be missed?
The Canaries were the easybeats of the PL losing their opening six games but have now won two and drawn the other in their last three matches to sit three points ahead of their SJP rivals.
United have leaked three goals in each of their last three home matches, unable to defend when the onus is on them to get forward.
So what is in store for us? Bitten finger nails, heart flutters and massive apprehension without a doubt.