Logarithmically-scaled, three colour XMM-Newton EPIC image of the central area of M 31 combining PN, MOS1 and MOS2 data of all five observations of the campaign. Red, green and blue show the (0.2 − 0.5) keV, (0.5 − 1.0) keV and (1.0 − 2.0) keV bands. The SSSs show up deeply red. The data in each colour band were binned in 2″x 2″ pixels and smoothed using a Gaussian of FWHM 5″. The counterparts of optical novae detected in this work are marked with white circles. For M31N 1997-11a and M31N 2006-06a only the positions are designated, since they are not visible is this image but are detected in Chandra images. The four non-nova SSSs detected in this work are marked with white boxes. The large white box includes the central region of M 31, which is shown as a Chandra composite in Fig. 2.