Newcastle crush West Brom to return to top four trail

Hatem Ben Arfa's display was key to Newcastle's success

'Winning breeds confidence'. It is a cliched platitude that is often uttered in football circles, and it is one that, more often than not, proves to be correct.

In the case of Newcastle United, their win against Norwich City after a streak of four games without victory, has clearly invigorated the side and this was evident from the beginning of Sunday's contest at West Bromwich Albion.

The Magpies win against Norwich in the previous week was gritty and unattractive, by contrast their triumph over Roy Hodgson's in-form Baggies was filled with expressive attacking play and an incisiveness that cut the home defence apart with surprising regularity. 

Newcastle looked threatening right from the first whistle, Yohan Cabaye and Danny Guthrie controlled the middle of the field, while Jonas Gutierrez and Hatem Ben Arfa caused Albion a multitude of problems down the left hand side. 

Demba Ba went close early on when his shot was tipped over by Scott Carson, but Newcastle were rewarded for an extremely positive start when Gutierrez slipped a clever ball through to Ben Arfa who delivered a well placed ball in from the left flank for Papiss Cisse to tap home from close range. 

The lead was doubled six minutes later with Ben Arfa at the forefront once more as he executed a wonderful counter attack to add Newcastle's second. The former Marseille man collected a clearance from Fabrico Coloccini, quickly exchanged passes with both Cabaye and Cisse before surging up the pitch and into the West Brom box to cut onto his left foot and fire a curling effort past Carson.

Albion enjoyed a spell of possession and territory shortly after, midfielder James Morrison fired a volley over and had a goal correctly ruled out for offside, while striker Marc Antoine-Fortune headed over from a corner.

Papiss Cisse has now scored five in six for Newcastle 

Newcastle weathered this short storm and soon found themselves three to the good as Cisse netted his second of the game and his fifth in six appearances since joining the club from Freiburg in January. 

The Magpies' third was arguably the best goal of the game and came a result of some more neat interplay from Ben Arfa. The Frenchman raced away on another counter and linked up cleverly with Ba before pulling the ball back for Cisse to rattle home a left footed strike. 

Captain Coloccini was replaced by Davide Santon at half time after the Argentine suffered a hamstring stain towards the end of the first half. Newcastle continued to throw caution to the wind however, and Senegalese international Cisse should have had his hat-rick when he was played through by Cabaye early into the second period, but the striker hit a tame effort straight at Carson. 

Cisse could have been left to rue his miss had West Brom been able to add to the one goal they were able to pull back shortly after, when substitute Shane Long capitalised on a miscommunication between Tim Krul and Mike Williamson to volley into an empty net.

From then on it was a comfortable afternoon for Newcastle, Ben Arfa, enjoying his best performance in a Newcastle shirt, marauded forward at will and forced a smart save from Carson after slicing through the Albion midfield with consummate ease. 

West Brom created little and seemed to lose attacking impetus after Morrison was withdrawn from the field with knee ligament damage. 

The Baggies can have little complaints though, from the beginning of the first half this was Newcastle's day and they kept their nerve to earn a well deserved three points that puts them level on points with 5th placed Chelsea and just five behind 4th placed Tottenham Hotspur.

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has already dismissed the notion could finish fourth and qualify for the Champions League citing a lack of squad depth. Still Magpies' fans can dare to dream, and although the injury to Coloccini - which Pardew has said could keep the defender out for 3 to 4 games - is a blow to to their cause, Newcastle have demonstrated great resiliency and spirit throughout the campaign and hopes of a berth in Europe's top club competition should not be discredited just yet. 

Next up for the Geordies is a game against 7th placed Liverpool. The fixture will see a return to St James Park for Andy Carroll and Jose Enrique, but it will more importantly play a big role in deciding where Newcastle finish the season. Pardew's side currently hold an eight point advantage over Kenny Dalglish's men, avoid defeat and the Magpies should be able to sew up 6th place, win and the Toon Army can be forgiven for setting their sights on a place in Europe's elite competition.