Before this game Alex Ferguson was presented with the prize for the Carling Charity Challenge, a regional league based on the results between the Premiership's five Northwest clubs. Who would have thought in August that Manchester United's only trophy this season would be a golden lager can on a plinth?
No European Cup and now, after this draw knocked them off the top of the table for the first time since October, almost certainly no Premiership title either.
Ferguson is a bad loser at the best of times. These are the worst of times. "I'm disappointed because I don't like losing games," he said. Then, realising United had drawn, he added, "Or losing championships". It was the nearest he came to conceding that Arsenal were home and dry.
Jaded and uninspired, United have been operating on memory for the past two months, and it has not been enough. For the second time in four seasons Kenny Dalglish has all but contrived to deny United a hat-trick of league titles, having thwarted them with Blackburn and now, more or less, with Newcastle United.
Ferguson tried to direct one last example of his famed out-psyching technique at Arsenal. "You never know what might happen in football," he offered. "Firm grounds, bumpy, windy; it can change the complexion of matches quite easily."
But the possibility of Arsene Wenger quaking in his boots at the prospect of an unkind bounce or a gusting crisp packet seems remote. Wenger is no Kevin Keegan. This time, even on the psychological front, Ferguson has finished second best. As a well-remembered Norwegian commentator might have said: "Freud, Jung, Berne, Klein, your boy took a hell of a beating."
Mathematically United can still retain the title but it would need an Arsenal collapse of unimaginable proportions. "Realistically you would have to say we are up against it," Ferguson added, and he has already begun a more constructive analysis of what went wrong this season in an attempt to avoid a repeat.
The blame list is well-stocked: the loss of the injured Roy Keane, the absence from recent games of Ryan Giggs, also through injury, the European campaign and international games which left players mentally and physically drained, revealing that United's squad had the depth of a Jeffrey Archer novel.
And the shadow of a Frenchman hung over United's failure: not Arsene Wenger's but Eric Cantona's. For, as tired minds and legs reduced the pace in United's game, how they missed someone with his presence and match-turning touch.
Earlier in the day Ferguson also admitted that some players were missing the old hunger. There would, he said, be changes. A new broom would seem a healthy response to the lack of a clean sweep. United cannot afford to stand still.
It was a maxim their defence ignored to their cost after 11 minutes on Saturday. For while the United back line all froze waiting for an offside flag that never came, Andreas Andersson was calmly collecting Gary Speed's header and helping himself to one of the easiest goals he will score.
Newcastle, buoyed by Easter Monday's relegation-relieving win over Barnsley, played better than they had for a long time and threatened regularly. United did, too, but they also gave the ball away too often and struggled to dominate midfield early on.
Their equaliser came in the 37th minute, when David Beckham escaped Warren Barton to head in Ryan Giggs's excellent cross, heralding an exciting second half which grew to a controversial crescendo. Barton hit a post, Alan Shearer missed two presentable chances and Temuri Ketsbaia one. At the other end Andy Cole and Paul Scholes went close and Shay Given produced saves to deny Gary Pallister and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But the final indignity was Manchester United's as a minute from time the little Norwegian deliberately hacked down Robert Lee to stop his clear run on goal ending in a Newcastle win. It was a cynical piece of professionalism for which he was sent off but deserved more.
United now lose him and the injured Peter Schmeichel for the final three games of their season. Meanwhile Gary Neville was substituted because of flu and is likely to miss England's game with Portugal, while Nicky Butt went off with what in terms of United's season was a wondrously appropriate ailment: double vision.
Manchester United: Schmeichel (Van Der Gouw 18), G. Neville (Solskjaer 79), Irwin, May, Pallister, Beckham, Butt (Scholes 44), Cole, Sheringham, Giggs, P. Neville. Subs Not Used: Berg, Clegg. Sent Off: Solskjaer (89). Booked: Beckham, Pallister. Goals: Beckham 38.
Newcastle United: Given, Barton, Batty, Lee, Shearer, Speed, Pearce, Pistone, Albert, Dabizas, Andersson (Ketsbaia 66). Subs Not Used: Srnicek, Tomasson, Gillespie, Watson. Booked: Pistone, Shearer, Given. Goals: Andersson 11.
Referee: U D Rennie (Sheffield).
