Questions were asked whether the two could form a partnership together, having, despite being international teammates, barely line-up alongside each other, and as long as Cisse is scoring in Ba’s drought, not many will care for an answer. However, Ba’s contribution on the whole has seemingly dipped, having not assisted either since Cisse signed for £10m – Pardew’s most expensive purchase to date.
Yet, Papiss Cisse is showing every sign of being the number nine Newcastle have longed for since Carroll’s departure and his arrival completes the return on the England striker’s fee. Hatem Ben Arfa, Davide Santon, Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote, Gabriel Obertan, Demba Ba, Sylvain Marveaux, Dan Gosling and Mehdi Abeid signed for the Toon for a combined £23 million +/- £2.5m and Cisse’s £10m arrival brings the total roughly into line with what Carroll left for.
Money aside, Cisse’s weekend exploits ranked him among Europe’s finest. For distribution of the ball, Manchester City’s Yaya Toure topped the charts, beating ex-club Barcelona’s Thiago Alcantara, who was one of nine homegrown players in Barca’s team that beat Mallorca 2-0 over the weekend. For chance creation, it was Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa that led the charts ahead of Getafe’s J.Gavilan and Toulouse’s A.Regattin.
However, topping the shooting charts across Europe’s five top leagues (England, France, Germany, Italy & Spain), was Papiss Cisse, beating £80m Cristiano Ronaldo and £20m Zlatan Ibrahimovic. To top a brilliant week for Newcastle, Hatem Ben Arfa ranked as the best overall player in Europe over the weekend, according to statistical analysis from Opta and CIES Football Observatory, ahead of Karim Benzema and Eden Hazard – interestingly, three French developed players taking the three top spots.
With Graham Carr seemingly possessing a delicate palette for the succulent footballing market of France, Alan Pardew providing the tactical nous to far exceed Newcastle’s expectations to the point that they’re just as close to 3rd place Arsenal as they are 6th place Liverpool – eight points, and their Francophone squad delivering on the pitch week-in-week-out, be it Tiote or Cabaye, or Ben Arfa or Ba, Newcastle are poised for a strong finish to Alan Pardew’s first full season.
The only question left now is can they pip Chelsea or Tottenham to fourth place or will they be left to fight for a position unimaginable back in August – fifth?
Written by Jordan Florit for www.maycauseoffence.com/ For more articles visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit
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Don’t forget the money for Milner (12m), Martins (7m), Bassong (6m), Duff (2m), Given (5m) and all the other profits big mike has took in over five years that we haven’t really spent, and allowed players like alan smith to be signed.