The off-season pessism at Newcastle was well-documented. But the belief now sweeping around St James’ Park is tangible.
The Toon held on to 4th place in the Premier League, as Alan Pardew’s men continued their unbeaten start to the season with a 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers.
It was encouraging to see Demba Ba notch his first goal for the club – and then even more satisfying that the summer signing from West Ham managed to claim a hat-trick. The Senegalese striker joins Leon Best at the top of the Toon’s goalscoring chart, though Best himself missed a number of good opportunities to add to his season’s tally against Rovers this afternoon.
That minor complaint aside, though, Pardew and his squad deserve a lot of credit for the first six games of the season. Newcastle’s record is an impressive three wins and three draws, but perhaps the most striking statistic is that the Toon have conceded the fewest goals in the whole of England. Today’s consolation for Junior Hoilett was only the third time that the excellent Tim Krul has had his net breached in the league.
Admittedly, Nottingham Forest scored three in the Carling Cup tie in midweek, but even that wasn’t enough to overcome a resilient Newcastle, for whom captain Fabricio Coloccini grabbed a 120th-minute winner.
Newcastle have shown few signs of missing Jose Enrique, even with emergency left-back Ryan Taylor struggling at times to keep tabs on wingers exploiting his lack of positional experience. But Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton have been replaced well by Ba, Best, Gabriel Obertan, Sylvain Marveaux and the irrepressible Yohan Cabaye. With Hatem Ben Arfa finally getting back to full fitness and Davide Santon not needing surgery, Newcastle has turned the corner well in terms of the disruption of the overhaul of players.
Sure, there are still more than rumblings of discontent with Mike Ashley and his so-called Cockney Mafia. But the on-the-field performances have been encouraging, to say the least.
Ba had underperformed this season before today’s treble, but that can be largely attributed to the fact that he was fasting during the period of Ramadan. With Ba demonstrating his prowess, the defence tight and belief exuding from the Magpies, this – it has to be said unexpected – optimism will hopefully continue to prevail on Tyneside for a long time.
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