Ben Arfa's broken leg compounds Hughton's annoyance

The club last night confirmed the injury to be a broken tibia and fibula of Ben Arfa's left leg and he will undergo surgery this morning.

The Frenchman was on the wrong end of a reckless-looking tackle from Nigel de Jong after only five minutes and left the field on a stretcher, requiring oxygen to ease his discomfort.

Hughton said: "Everyone will have their own opinion but it was a tackle that did not need to be made."

Referee Martin Atkinson did not even award a free-kick, which suggests the matter will be looked at again, with the possibility of a violent conduct charge being brought by the FA if the tackle is deemed to be reckless.

"There is no malice in Nigel whatsoever," said City assistant-manager Brian Kidd. "He is not that type of lad."

Whether the FA take the same stance remains to be seen.

However, there is definitely nothing they can do about the two penalty calls Hughton is convinced went against his side.

First, Newcastle lost out when Atkinson ruled Mike Williamson chopped down Carlos Tevez when the score was still goalless.

TV replays suggested that if it was a foul, which was debatable, it took place outside the area.

Tevez crashed his opportunity home but then, after Adam Johnson had struck in the second half to give City the edge following Jonas Gutierrez's excellent equaliser, the referee ignored Joleon Lescott's lunge on Shola Ameobi which seemed a certain penalty.

"It is an injustice that we have come out of the game with a result like that," said Hughton.

"Games like this are difficult enough but you need decisions to go your way and with those two incidents, the referee made two horrendous ones."

Hughton confirmed he had left prospective England striker Andy Carroll out of his starting line-up on form grounds, and although he was introduced late on, Newcastle's last chance fell to Williamson.

None of this will bother City, whose manager Roberto Mancini left immediately after the final whistle to visit his father, who is presently ill at home in Italy.

It was left to Kidd, a veteran of title-winning campaigns at Manchester United, to sum up a pleasing day for the Blues, who have now gone above their neighbours from Old Trafford.

"Sometimes you have to win ugly," he said. "You have to scrap and fight. And if you are going to win things or get a top four place, you need some luck as well.

"Manchester United dropped points and we knew either Chelsea or Arsenal would drop them as well.

"The aim is to make sure when the others slip up, we are in a position to take advantage."