How has Alan Pardew done it? Five factors in Newcastle United’s unlikely revival of fortunes this season

Nobody saw it coming. A home game against Leicester was supposed to be the final straw. As the ‘Pardew Out’ banners decorated St James’ Park, this was surely the death throes of an unloved regime. Even a 1-0 win felt like a stay of execution with the fixtures that were to come.

But then came more wins. A surprise Premier League victory away to Tottenham and a shock 2-0 win at holders Manchester City in the Capital One Cup. Home successes over Liverpool and Chelsea have breathed new life into their season and Newcastle fans are dreaming again.

Manager of the Month, Alan Pardew’s side find themselves in the top half of the Premier League – they go into the weekend just four points off the Champions League places – and are in the quarter-finals of the League Cup. But how have they done it? Here are five reasons why things have turned around…

Time for new stars to adapt

“I think it’s a little bit tougher when players are coming from abroad and have to adjust to the Premier League. Making those adjustments are very important – and they take time.” Pardew’s fiercest critics dismissed these words as trademark excuses but they seem a fair assessment of the early struggles of Emmanuel Riviere and Remy Cabella at Newcastle.

Riviere started Newcastle’s first six Premier League games, scoring none and failing to feature on the winning side. Taken out of the firing line following defeat to Stoke, the turnaround has since been swift. There is hope he can return to the team stronger for the experience. That’s certainly proved to be the case with Cabella.

“It's logical.” That was Cabella’s view on being axed, in an interview with L'Equipe. “The coach had been starting me in the first two months, but I had not scored or had an assist. Dropping me to the bench, and indeed not playing me at all at Swansea, hurt my pride. But I have not eased off, I have worked more.”

He’s since responded with an assist off the bench in the win at Tottenham and was back in the starting line-up for the win over Chelsea, showing signs of the sort of talent that Newcastle head scout Graham Carr identified in the 24-year-old at Montpellier. “Giving him a little rest has given him the opportunity to understand what the Premier League is about and come back stronger,” says Pardew.

Giving youngsters a chance

Pardew was criticised for that old folly of picking the same side and expecting different results, but after having his hand forced by both injuries and sheer desperation, he has eventually turned to his young players and it’s had the effect of galvanising the crowd and the club.

In fact, there were also as many as five local lads on the pitch together when Papiss Cisse scored his goals against Chelsea last weekend and they’re showing precisely the sort of enthusiasm that’s needed. The Premier League tracking data shows that Paul Dummett produced the most high-intensity runs (69) and Jack Colback covered the greatest distance (12.35 kilometres).

Colback has topped that particular chart in five of Newcastle’s six wins with Mehdi Abeid pipping him in the other.  Meanwhile, Ayoze Perez is in the exclusive club of having made 70 or more sprints in a game more than once this season, bringing the sort of energy that has seen Newcastle outrun their opponents by a combined total of over 12 kilometres in their last three home matches.

Switch to 4-3-3 formation

While Riviere often found himself a lone figure in attack in the early stages of the season, a formation tweak has seen more support for the likes of Perez and Cisse in attack. Moussa Sissoko has dropped into a compact midfield three with Sammy Ameobi offering athletic support out wide.

“Our system is causing teams problems,” said Pardew of the recent return to a 4-3-3 formation. “We’ve played that system with some successful teams here, with different teams. We played it when we finished fifth. We played that system at the start of last year.

“But this team has a different make up to those two teams. Those teams were about possession, this team is quite happy not to have the ball. It can be just as dangerous without the ball – perhaps even more of a threat at times.”

Newcastle might be in the bottom half of the table for possession, passing accuracy and the number of short passes, but with pace now in the team they offer a real threat on the counter-attack - as shown against Chelsea. Only Arsenal and Manchester City have played more through-balls than Newcastle this season and that’s testament to the cutting edge they’ve rediscovered.

Rejuvenated senior players

Cisse’s return to goalscoring form has been the most spectacular example of the recent renaissance. The striker who began his Newcastle career with 11 goals in his first 10 appearances has found himself on a new hot streak in front of goal and currently boasts the best strike rate of anyone in the Premier League with seven goals in 462 minutes of action.

But Cisse isn’t alone in finding his best form. Sissoko was another who’d been forced to patrol the right wing only to improve his performance levels since going back into the middle of the pitch. A powerful presence, he’s offered Newcastle more stability and helped make them a difficult team to play against once again.

In defence, a refocused Fabricio Coloccini has been impressing, too. In a sense, the Argentine’s assured displays seem to sum up the way the team have redoubled their efforts after losing their way. Just like the team he continues to captain, Coloccini is enjoying a new lease of life.

Credit to the Newcastle crowd

Much has been made of the demanding crowd at St James’ Park, but they were entitled to be dismayed by events at the club. Newcastle lost 14 of their final 20 Premier League games last season, including seven of the last eight, so when they began the current campaign with no wins in the first six, the complaints were entirely understandable.

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Even if those fans appreciated that the problems ran deeper than the identity of the coach, this was a dismal run. Perhaps that’s why the best results have come in the big games – against Liverpool and Chelsea – when concerns could be put to one side. With the famous away support as vocal as ever, the players have belatedly responded to this pressure in the right way, using it as inspiration.

A trip to Arsenal is not going to be easy – Newcastle have lost their last five against the Gunners – but it does offer the chance to leapfrog their hosts and move within two points of Manchester United in third. With a quarter-final tie at Spurs to come on Wednesday, two good results in the capital really would highlight how quickly things can change in football.

Watch Arsenal v Newcastle live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 4.45pm on Saturday