Roberto Mancini: "The season is long.
"Sir Alex (Ferguson) knows that better than me. He knows this championship is not finished when there are only three games to the end.
"Now we have 21 games to the end, so it is still open.
"When you have a defeat against anybody, but in particular against United, it is important to win again very quickly - and we have started here, where I don't think a lot of teams can win. I was very satisfied with the performance.
"My special message (to Sir Alex) is only happy Christmas for December 25th.
"I don't understand why we were missing all these chances in the first half.
"When you have six or eight chances, you need to score more goals.
"If not, it can be like the second half, when they scored their goal. It can change everything, and I was anxious.
"In the second half, Newcastle were better and they pushed into our half, but we had other chances to close out the game.
"Mario Balotelli is not in good form at this moment and it is better for him to carry on training and train well. When he is in good form, he will play."