THERE are two competing narratives dominating Newcastle United’s season at the moment, and while one is commanding all the attention, the other is in danger of being ignored. Eventually, however, it could well be the only one that matters.

Amanda Staveley’s ongoing attempts to buy out Mike Ashley are providing a much-needed festive feel-good factor on the banks of the Tyne.

If only PCP Capital Partners could complete their takeover, Rafael Benitez would have a £30m spending pot at his disposal for next month’s transfer window and all the issues that have been apparent in the last few months would magically disappear.

Never mind the problems of the present, just imagine how great things could be in the future. Gruel today, jam tomorrow. It is a Dickensian fairy-tale come true.

Yet while Staveley’s takeover attempts dominate the news agenda and provide something for Newcastle’s long-suffering supporters to cling to, there is an alternative tale playing out that is considerably less saccharine and heart-warming.

Back in the real world, or at the least the world that can be measured in points and league positions rather than potential buyouts and predictions of future spending, Newcastle have returned to their familiar state of crisis. Because of the back story, though, it is a decline that has almost gone unnoticed.

After Saturday’s all-too-predictable defeat at Arsenal, the Magpies have now picked up just one point from the last available 27. They have won just one of their last 13 games, and have fewer points at this stage of the season than Steve McClaren’s side had accumulated at an identical point of the 2015-16 campaign that ended in relegation. With West Ham United and Crystal Palace both having won at the weekend, they are back in the bottom three for the first time since they last went down.

Since beating Crystal Palace in the middle of October, the Magpies have been abject, and while there are clearly mitigating factors to help explain their collapse, the harsh reality is that their current run is unacceptable no matter what the handicaps that have to be overcome.

Yes, as Benitez once again pointed out in the press room at the Emirates, Ashley and Lee Charnley failed to sign most of his leading targets in the summer. Benitez can justifiably claim he is having to play players that were signed to do a job in the Championship, and Newcastle are operating with a budget that is one of the smallest in the whole of the Premier League.

But that still doesn’t excuse a run of one point from 27. Huddersfield and Brighton were promoted alongside Newcastle last season, and spent a similar amount of money strengthening their squad in the summer, yet the former scored four goals at Watford at the weekend and the latter currently sit five places ahead of the Magpies in the table. Burnley have a similar wage bill to Newcastle, yet find themselves sitting in the top five.

Newcastle’s players have underperformed badly in the last two months, and while it is hard to be too critical of their performance against Arsenal, when they refused to collapse in the wake of Mezut Ozil’s superb first-half strike and even threatened to salvage a point as they staged a late rally, they continue to come up short.

Benitez should also not be immune to criticism, and while some supporters regard any negative comments about their manager as heresy, no one can avoid coming under scrutiny if they guide their side into the bottom three.

Is Florian Lejeune really a better bet than Ciaran Clark at centre-half? The Spaniard’s poor defensive header inadvertently set up Ozil’s winner, and he has made a number of poor decisions in recent weeks. Yet he remains in the team even though Clark contributed to most of Newcastle’s solidest performances in the early weeks of the season.

Has the switch to 4-4-2 worked? Not really. But Benitez appears keen to stick with the formation, even though he has been critical of its limitations in the past. Was Ayoze Perez a better partner for Joselu at the weekend than Dwight Gayle? Given that Gayle has scored against Manchester United and Chelsea this season despite feeding on scraps, the evidence is hardly overwhelming.

It can be argued that such quibbles are really neither here nor there when the brutal reality is that Newcastle’s players are simply good not enough, especially when they find themselves lining up against an Arsenal team that can afford to keep the likes of Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud on the bench.

That is fair enough, and no one is suggesting that Benitez’s position should be under threat. It would be at plenty of other clubs though, and while he is right to blame others for Newcastle’s failings, he cannot abrogate all responsibility for their current plight.

“I am not happy with the situation and I do not think the players will be happy with the situation,” said Benitez, in the wake of his side’s latest defeat. “But if you analysed everything at the beginning of the season, then where we are now is something that could be expected.

“We are where we are. We knew we were missing in some positions, and we have seen over the whole season what has happened. In some positions, we need competition, and we have to see what we can do (in January) to help with that.

“If you analyse some of the teams at the bottom of the table, you see the cost of the players they have. For example, look at Crystal Palace. Look at the four players they have up front, and tell me how much they cost now. It is so simple when you look at things like that.”

There was certainly a vast gulf between the financial value of the two teams on display at the Emirates at the weekend, and while Newcastle acquitted themselves reasonably well, there was always a sense that Arsenal were playing with the handbrake on after Ozil handed them the lead.

The only goal of the game was a cracker, with Ozil arcing a superb first-time volley into the roof of the net after Lejeune’s defensive header looped in his direction on the edge of the box.

The recalled Rob Elliot prevented things getting worse, saving from Alex Iwobi at the start of the second half and scrambling away a low strike from Jack Wilshere after Giroud cushioned a header into the midfielder’s path.

Lejeune made a goalline clearance after Ozil clipped the ball over Elliot following a one-two with Alexandre Lacazette, but with Arsenal failing to add to their advantage, Newcastle were able to remain in the game.

They created a couple of late chances, but were unable to beat Petr Cech. Joselu’s shot deflected wide off Laurent Koscielny after Gayle prodded the ball into his path, and Perez headed Matt Ritchie’s cross wide after climbing effectively at the back post.

“Our situation is that we did so well for a while that everybody was expecting that we could be in the top ten, but we knew that this team, coming back from the Championship last year and doing the things that we did in the summer, had to be near the bottom of the table,” said Benitez.

The key question now is whether it ‘has to be’ near the bottom come May.