Injury to Mikel Arteta is a 'massive blow' to Everton

Moyes now faces an anxious wait over the severity of the pair's injuries with Spaniard Arteta returning to Merseyside before the match was over to undergo a scan.

He said: "We've not got all the information (on Arteta's condition) at the moment but it's not looking particularly good news.

"He's gone back to Liverpool for a scan but we'll wait before we get the final outcome, it looks bad.

"I think someone just nudged him on and he twisted it (his knee).

"I don't know whether he'll be out for the season, I can't say that until we find out and get a report."

While there could be little blame directed at the opposition for Arteta's injury, Anichebe's problem was the direct result of a shocking two-footed lunge by Nolan which led referee Lee Mason to brandish an instant red card.

After undergoing on-pitch treatment and returning from the sidelines, the Nigerian striker was clearly unable to run the injury off and he was withdrawn just before the break for Marouane Fellaini.

Moyes said: "Victor's not okay, he's going to have to get checked out as well.

"He's sore and limping badly. He's pushed his knee in.

"We had no width, we were limited as to who we had and we ended up patched up throughout the team.

"We're disappointed that we've lost Mikel Arteta - it's a massive blow to us - and it's disappointing that we've not beaten Newcastle.

"I thought we were good enough to do so the way we've been playing but credit Newcastle, they made it hard for us, got people behind the ball and we found it difficult to break them down."

Moyes had admitted after the previous Sunday's 3-1 FA Cup win over Aston Villa that he was pleasantly surprised that his players had proved him wrong in thinking it was a 'game too far for them' given their mounting number of injuries but reckons that given the readjustments he had to make in this contest, that fitness problems have finally caught up with his side.

He said: "Before the game today I thought that the injuries had finally caught up with us.

"For the first time I've had to start playing people really out of position but we've done it before and we'll do it again and get on with it.

"It was definitely a missed opportunity. If you play for the best part of an hour against 10 men we'd have hoped to have taken all the points.

"I think we had more chances when they had 11 men than 10 and we should have been a couple of goals up but we weren't and when you get opportunities in this league you have to take them just like when Newcastle had one and they didn't take theirs.

"In the end we were just too patched up to get any real rhythm or flow to our game."