NEWCASTLE PASSES THE TEST

Newcastle United had a question to answer Sunday.

It wasn't whether the 2011-12 version is good enough to meet the board's expectation of a top-10 finish - we had all already seen enough to believe it is.

Sunday's match against Spurs was about whether Newcastle has enough to challenge for a European place this season. And after a pulsating 2-2 draw at St. James' Park, I'm confident in saying it does.

It's true that injuries could still wreak havoc on United's smaller-than-ideal squad. Bad stretches are bound to come up, too. But the ability is clearly there. Newcastle controlled the bulk of Sunday's match, something it simply couldn't do against the Premier League's top sides last season.

Think back to last season's corresponding fixture. Sure, Newcastle still emerged with a point from the match. But Spurs dictated play, with United trying to hold on defensively while being opportunistic in attack. You can get a result here and there doing that, but it's not a sustainable plan for success.

The way Newcastle played Sunday is. Legitimately good teams need to be able to control the action against quality opponents. And that's precisely what United did against Spurs, the best team it's faced this season. Yohan Cabaye and Cheik Tiote dictated play in the center of the midfield - with help from Demba Ba - which allowed Newcastle to win the possession battle and, eventually, craft some scoring opportunities.

Ba continued to show he might just be the lead striker United need this season, Jonas Gutierrez was his normal hard-working self on the left wing and Fabricio Coloccini was superb, his late miss aside. Not to mention Alan Pardew's three substitutes. Hatem Ben Arfa was clearly rusty, but still looked dangerous on the ball. Davide Santon wasn't as involved, but gave United a major upgrade in skill at right back. And Shola Ameobi once again demonstrated he's capable of world-class moments.

United's flaws were still visible. Danny Simpson again looked like a weak link at right back, offering little going forward (to be fair, his defending was fine). Steven Taylor reminded us that he's still prone to the odd rash challenge (although it should be noted that Cabaye's giveaway put him in a bad spot). Gabriel Obertan was disappointing in light of how many opportunities he had down the right wing. And United didn't create enough genuine scoring chances overall. Those are some of the reasons why Newcastle isn't realistically going to challenge for a Champions League spot this season.

But they can challenge for the Europa League. That much is clear after Sunday's performance.

Comments

[M]

Generally agree with ur take, though I would add that I thought Pardew missed a trick with his subs again in that he should have made them earlier. The pattern of play in the 2nd half was clearly going against us before Defoe's goal and he should/could have been pro-active in doing something about it - our bench is pretty decent these days after all!

And a quick word for Raylor too - even though he was at fault for the 2nd goal (wrong side of his man) I thought his all-round play was excellent, both in defence and in his contribution to the team when in possession.

[Ryan]

Agree with M. I was actually looking for HBA to come on around the 60th minute. But, that's really a nitpick. Overall, I was impressed and am very satisfied with the result. I know it could have been 3 points, but the fact that we fought back not once, but twice shows this team has something special that last year's team did not. If we can fortify a bit in January and stay healthy until then, I think Europa is a definite possibility. Once we get through this stretch of tough fixtures, I think we will have a much better idea of where we are as a team overall. But so far, so good. HWTL!!

[Rob Moyer]

We are sitting top 4 now for 3+ weeks running now. This is not a fluke, we have one of the best central midfield pairings in the premier league. Stout CB's and a striker coming on form. If we play the Manchester's and Chelsea in the coming weeks like we did with Spurs we can challenge for more than top half. I believe this club is going to surprise even the optimistic supporters this season. (So if history holds serve we will surely finish bottom half!)