NEWCASTLE United have been challenged to “attack” the top half of the Premier League after their French-inspired revolution continued yesterday.

The Magpies have won three of four league matches since the week they added four French players to the squad.

One of them, Moussa Sissoko, was inspirational in yesterday’s 4-2 win over Southampton although Alan Pardew was most pleased with an earlier French signing, Mathieu Debuchy.

“We’ve now put ourselves in a position to attack tenth,” said Pardew.

“I said to them afterwards we should attack the top ten now and we can with this team.

“You can see a kind of assurance about us.

“Even when we went behind (to Morgan Schneiderlin’s third-minute volley) we played with real calmness and didn’t panic.

“Again at 2-2 we rode a little bad period. It bodes well going forward.

“When we went to (Aston) Villa (at the start of the sequence) I said to the team, you’ve got 15 games to go, we’ve got to be in the top four (on form) in the last 15 games and we are probably. That’s form we’ve got to maintain for the rest of the season.”

Newcastle started three points above the relegation zone, but ended three behind tenth-placed Stoke City.

They marked the game with a slightly tongue-in-cheek tribute to their French contingent – seven of whom were in the matchday squad. Full-back Debuchy,

signed a couple of weeks before the rash of cross-Channel arrivals, most pleased Pardew.

“If you ever want to see a right-back performance, look at the highlights of that,” he said. “He was excellent. He created the winning goal (volleying the cross Danny Fox handled for Yohan Cabaye’s penalty), no one went past him, he was strong, good in the air.

“I thought it (Newcastle’s French day) took a bit of tension out of the game, with that little fun element. It certainly helped us.”

Premier League debutant Rob Elliot made some important saves when Newcastle were under the cosh at the start of the second half. “I really felt for Robbie because the team in front of him couldn’t get near Southampton (early in the game),” said Pardew.

“Robbie’s picking the ball out of the net (he was not even able to do that, Cabaye beating him to it) in that period, one down, and I don’t think we’ve come from behind after conceding the first goal all year.

“But we looked different to what I’ve had here. There’s no surprise, the extra quality can help a manager. We’ve got a confidence about us that we could get it back and I was really pleased with Robbie Elliot. He’s every bit as good as Tim (Krul) in my opinion.” The extra quality came mainly from Sissoko, Newcastle’s first goalscorer.

“Since I arrived we never really had a natural ten,” Pardew reflected. “In the modern game you need to have that and Moussa is a better link player than Demba (Ba).”

“Moussa gives us different options and lets the wide players have a bit more freedom to attack.”

Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino felt hard done-by after a Papiss Cissé goal Pardew compared to Alan Shearer’s against Everton in 2001, and a debatable Cabaye penalty. “The handball’s completely accidental,” he said of Fox’s block. “It’s one of those things that can or can’t be given.”

Fabricio Coloccini went off in the first half with an injured back, but Pardew played down the problem.

Meanwhile, forward Sammy Ameobi is set for a loan move to Middlesbrough. Pardew confirmed: “I’d like to help Middlesbrough out if they want him and hopefully we can conclude that.”