FOR a man no one bar Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias seemed to want as manager nine months ago, Alan Pardew can do no wrong at the moment.
In between guiding the Magpies to another win in their best start to a season since the mid-90s, he was busy orchestrating the crowd. He ordered hat-trick hero Demba Ba to play to them as they asked for a wave, then stage-managed his departure to perfection.
Pardew decided Hatem Ben Arfa’s long-anticipated return to the Premier League should come at Ba’s expense, ensuring maximum volume to herald the Frenchman’s arrival and applaud his Senegalese team-mate’s performance.
The time is coming, though, when Pardew will have to start upsetting people. Ba’s display against Blackburn Rovers ensured as much. Pardew will be delighted.
The performances of Ba and Leon Best showed how well he is using competition to extract the best from his strikers. In a couple of weeks Ben Arfa could further ramp it up.
Such was the playmaker’s quality in Saturday’s 26-minute cameo, the clamour for a first Premier League start since October 3 is only likely to grow. It is three weeks until the Magpies return to St James’ Park. By then it may be hard to ignore.
The problem – if you can call it that – is there is no obvious hole crying out to be plugged by the Frenchman, who will only be considered for a position between the midfield and the forward line. A start to the season built on a solid back four has propelled Newcastle to fourth. Even at this early stage, theirs is the only unbeaten record outside of Manchester.
Against an admittedly poor Blackburn, Cheick Tioté showed he is getting up to speed after a slow start to the season, while Yohan Cabaye made a telling contribution despite the close attentions of Jason Lowe. Gabriel Obertan provides the pace Pardew was so keen to add in the summer, and Jonás Gutiérrez the insurance Ryan Taylor needs playing out of position.
Best’s goalscoring form was making his place look secure and even when it deserted him at the weekend, he managed to impress. The only real question mark on Saturday morning was who should partner him.
