Newcastle United are riding high in the English Premier League and it's no fluke. At least, not at the moment.
Another victory today against Wigan, another clean sheet, another 3 points, no defeats after nine games. Amazing.
A year ago, when Mike Ashley decided to fire ex-Manager Chris Hutchinson rather than pay him the money he deserved, many (including my humble self) wrote off Newcastle as a team destined to go back down to the Championship. Fast forward to today, with Alan Pardew (a cheaper but more experienced Manager) at the helm, the Magpies are enjoying their most productive run in the Premiership since the days of Sir Bobby Robson and Alan Shearer.
There's a reason for Alan Pardew's return to managerial prominence since going down in flames with Charlton Athletic a few years ago. It's all due largely to what I have coined as the 'Magpie French Connection'. Alan has done extremely well in closing the personnel gaps created by Andy Carroll (Liverpool), Kevin Nolan (West Ham) and Joey Barton's (QPR) exits. He's brought in French internationals Yohan Cabaye, Sylvain Marveaux, Mehdi Abeid to join Hatem Ben Arfa. In addition, he also brought in french speaking Demba Ba (Senegal) and Cheik Tiote (Cote D'Voire aka. Ivory Coast).
With the exception of Mehdi, all the afore-mentioned players have had instant impact in the league this season, with Cabaye getting the winner this afternoon. This puts Newcastle in 4th place on the table, level on 19 points with Chelsea and just 3 points behind league leaders Man City (Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea play tomorrow).
Remarkable!
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