Pardew plays down European hopes

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew does not believe his side will challenge for Champions League qualification despite two successive wins.

Pardew’s men ran out impressive 3-1 winners at West Brom on Sunday, a result that drew them level on points with Chelsea and five back from fourth-placed Tottenham.

With only eight games left to play this season, Pardew has pinpointed the remaining fixtures as the defining period in his side’s season.

But he also said it would take an enormous effort to overhaul Chelsea and Tottenham, with a clash at home to Liverpool on Sunday up next.

“It’s the last 10 games, we’ve won two out of two,” Pardew said.

“They’re the most important games of any season. We’ve got eight left. It’s a lot of games, a lot of points.

“I don’t think we’ve got the depth of squad to challenge for that (fourth place and Champions League football).

“We’ve lost (Fabricio) Coloccini today and that’s going to be a big blow to us going into that Liverpool game.

“It’s a game that all of the North East can look forward to. Our city will be buzzing after this result and next Sunday is going to be a cracker against Liverpool.”

Pardew went on to praise Hatem Ben Arfa’s ‘mesmerising’ display against West Brom.

The Frenchman set up both of Papisse Cisse’s goals and scored the other to guide Newcastle to a 3-0 half-time lead at The Hawthorns.

“He’s a special talent when the ball’s at his feet,” Pardew said.

“A couple of those runs were absolutely outstanding and I’m sure they’ll be highlighted in the next couple of days and quite rightly so, for his ability.

“I talked to him this week about just getting that right and I thought today he was mesmerising, that run through the middle and the shot was just astounding.

West Brom manager Roy Hodgson said the loss of midfielder James Morrison to injury was the killer blow for his team late in the match.

“3-0 at half time, you’re starring down the barrel of a gun really aren’t you? It’s a bad day, especially since we weren’t really playing that well,” Hodgson said.

“The second half I thought to the players’ credit they gave it a good shot, a good go to get it back into it and getting the early goal at one stage we looked like we had a bit of momentum.”

“But that certainly disappeared, any chances disappeared when (James) Morrison got injured and had to go off the field, because we were never going to be able to do it with 10 men having already made the substitutions.”