Lennon hails super Hooper

Bastia have announced the signing of goalkeeper Mickael Landreau on a deal until the end of the season.

The 33-year-old was out of contract after leaving Lille by mutual consent on December 6 following an apparent falling-out with general manager Frederic Paquet.

Landreau, who began his career at Nantes before joining Paris St Germain, spent three years at Lille, winning the league and cup double in 2011, and was under contract until 2014.

The France international will officially join Bastia on December 31.

Speaking in the wake of his departure from Lille earlier this month, Landreau said: "The most important thing is to blossom on the pitch. I could not anymore. And a year and a half is a long way to go when you have hard days.

"I have freed myself both sportingly and psychologically."

Landreau could make his debut for his new club in their Coupe de France derby encounter with Championnat National side CA Bastia on January 6.

The Senegal striker's future is once again the subject of intense speculation with a series of clubs reportedly ready to activate the release clause in his contract when the transfer window opens next month.

Pardew is in the process of identifying potential targets of his own in several positions, and has confirmed that Marseille frontman Loic Remy is among them.

Whether or not a striker will remain a priority should Ba stay, as his manager would dearly love him to do, remains to be seen, but in the circumstances, Ameobi's match-winning intervention against QPR on Saturday could hardly have come at a more opportune moment.

The 31-year-old said: "It's been frustrating, sitting on the bench every week and watching the lads out there doing their best to try to win.

"As a player, you want to be involved and help in any way you can. At the moment, that's me coming off the bench and I just have to do what I can.

"Hopefully, I can make an impact like I did on Saturday. I'm just really delighted that we sent everyone home happy for Christmas."

Ameobi's contribution was the only goal in a contest the Magpies dominated without ever making the pressure tell until the closing stages.

Papiss Cisse's 61st-minute removal, rather than the Nigeria international's introduction, was greeted by boos at St James' Park, but the jeers turned to cheers 20 minutes later when he ran on to fellow substitute Sylvain Marveaux's pass and stepped inside before shooting left footed across keeper Rob Green and into the bottom corner.

Any win is greeted by raucous celebrations at St James', but the fact that this was just the club's second in eight Barclays Premier League outings made for even more joyous scenes in the stands.

Ameobi said: "Sylvain, who has got great vision, spotted me and I managed to cut in and hit the side-netting, so it was nice.

"I haven't scored too many goals this year so far, so it's great to get on the scoresheet and because it was so valuable, it obviously means so much more. I'm really delighted with the finish.

"Obviously, we have been through quite a period of not winning many games, so this game was massive.

"With the two sides being so close together at the bottom of the table, it was a must-win game.

"There was a huge sigh of relief and we are delighted that we could get all three points."

For all that Newcastle were in control for much of the game, Green was largely untroubled until Ameobi struck with the invention of injured duo Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa painfully conspicuous by its absence.

However, a rare clean sheet provided the basis for a narrow, but precious win, and Ameobi is hoping that will finally kick-start a season which has rather limped towards the halfway point.

He said: "Something we felt as a side has been very frustrating is the fact that we haven't really looked like keeping clean sheets, we haven't looked solid, and that was the basis of our success last season.

"But you can't underestimate how much a win does for confidence in this game, and that's hopefully going to give us a lot of confidence going into the Christmas games."

The Magpies head to leaders Manchester United on Boxing Day having not won a league game at Old Trafford since 1972, and they will do so without midfielder Cheick Tiote, who collected his fifth booking of the campaign on Saturday.

Ameobi said with a smile: "Hopefully they will eat a lot more than we do and we can nick a result down there."

Hammers boss Allardyce insisted he could not risk losing any more players during the festive period as he faced up to the prospect of Carlton Cole being banned for three matches after Saturday's controversial 2-1 Premier League defeat to Everton.

Referee Anthony Taylor infuriated Allardyce and West Ham's fans by sending off Cole for catching Leighton Baines with a raised boot while making what appeared an innocent attempt to control a dropping ball.

Taylor completed his conversion to pantomime villain by dismissing Everton's Darron Gibson for a similar offence in stoppage-time, Hammers supporters pouring scorn on what looked to them an obvious attempt to even up the score.

Allardyce and opposite number David Moyes confirmed they would appeal their players' red cards but the former was equally concerned about how to manage the rest of his depleted squad.

Andy Carroll, Mohamed Diame, Yossi Benayoun and Ricardo Vaz Te were joined on the sidelines by the ill Guy Demel on Saturday, with Allardyce forced to select an 80% fit Gary O'Neil in his starting line-up and long-term injury victims Alou Diarra and Jack Collison on the bench.

"We had 10 players who were fit and one was about 80% fit and that was all we had," Allardyce said.

"We had Jack Collison, who hasn't kicked a ball since the play-off final and Alou Diarra, who hasn't kicked a ball in three months, that is how bare bones we are at the moment."

West Ham's Boxing Day match at Arsenal has been postponed because of a planned tube strike, with their next game at Reading on Saturday, and Allardyce added: "Medical staff are busier than us as coaches at the moment. We can't afford any more contact or any more injuries, so we can't even do any training.

"If we try to do any training and try to do any shape or build-up for Reading, we will get contact between players and, if you get contact between players, you risk injury and we can't do that.

"We can't even get out on the field and do a bit of coaching at the moment."

The Gunners had been at their free-flowing best in thumping Reading 5-2 on Monday but had to show a different side to their game in Saturday's 1-0 win at the DW Stadium.

The Latics more than matched their opponents on a sodden pitch but Arsenal made it three Barclays Premier League wins in a row thanks to Mikel Arteta's hotly-disputed penalty.

Arsene Wenger's side have been criticised in the past for slipping up in such games, and Wilshere said: "We got the points and we showed a different side to our game.

"It's a tough place to come to, Wigan, and they play a strange formation compared to other teams in England. They caused us some problems but we dealt well with it.

"It was a big adjustment with the pitch and the conditions but we showed great character. We know we can come to places like this and dig out results and we have to keep doing that.

"All the big teams when they come here, maybe they don't play very well but they seem to get results and we've done that."

It has been an excellent week for Arsenal with two victories and five players signing new long-term contracts, including Wilshere.

The 20-year-old has been in very good form since returning to action in October following more than a year out with an ankle injury.

He said: "It was nice to sign the new contract and I'm thankful for all the support the club have given me.

"This is a great club, everyone can see that, and for me it's like home. My friends and family are down the road, I've grown up at this club so I really feel like part of the family.

"I think I've shown commitment to the club and they've shown it to me so I think we have a good thing going on."

The Gunners are now in the unusual position of having a week until their next game after the scheduled Boxing Day clash against West Ham was postponed because of a threatened tube strike.

They will aim to make it four league victories in a row next Saturday against Newcastle, who gained a much-needed win over QPR on Saturday to pull away from the bottom three.

Wilshere said: "I think this will be one of my first and only Christmases at home. It's going to be quite nice to have a day with the family and then go again at the weekend.

"It's a tough game against Newcastle. They need the points, they're not in a good run of form and they'll want to prove something but we want to keep this momentum going.

"At times it's been tough this season but it seems we've got a good thing going on and we have to keep it going and end the year on a high."

The former Scunthorpe striker has been prolific since signing from the north Lincolnshire club in 2010 for ?2.4million and, after skipper Scott Brown had fired the home side into the lead a minute into the second half, he popped up with two headers from close range to take his overall SPL tally to 51.

The Celtic manager's day was complete when he watched winger James Forrest making a scoring return as a second-half substitute after recovering from a hamstring injury that had kept him out since the end of October.

The Northern Irishman, though, continues to be impressed by his number one striker whom he is hoping will sign a new contract.

Lennon said: "I fancied him to score but his all-round game was top class and I think he will only get better. He is an intelligent player. There are things you can't coach and one thing I've always liked about him since the day I saw him is his football intelligence.

"He can drop off into spaces or he can play on the shoulder of people and he has that natural knack of scoring goals, he scored two headers which is another thing he is adding to his game.

"I don't know what he has got for the season. It might be 15 or 16 so again we are getting a great return of goals but it is what he brings to the team with his all-round play."

On the subject of a new contract for Hooper, an issue which has been subject of seemingly endless discussion for weeks, Lennon said: "I haven't spoken to his agent but the soundbites I am getting from Gary is that he delighted with things and happy to stay here."

The champions are five points ahead of Inverness with a game in hand and could have the title effectively won before they take on Italian giants Juventus in the last-16 of the Champions League in February and March.

County boss Derek Adams has no such exciting European prospects on the horizon.

He watched his side fail to win for the ninth successive time to leave them six points ahead of bottom side Dundee having played a game more.

However, Adams tried to remain upbeat and will try to take some positives from the first-half where former Celt Rocco Quinn and Alex Cooper both missed good chances to give the visitors the lead.

He said: "I thought we moved the ball well at times, we contained Celtic and frustrated them but we still had opportunities.

"You don't get many opportunities when you go to a venue like Celtic Park but if we don't take them it makes it difficult

"We didn't defend well enough straight after half-time and were 2-0 down after seven minutes of the second-half."