Newcastle enjoyed an amazing campaign in the Premier League and came close to claiming a top-four spot. At the end of the day they only have to contend themselves with Europa League but this is still a superb achievement for Alan Pardiew and his side. The close season saw the sale of some key players like Jose Enrique, Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan and optimism was in short supply around Tyneside despite some shrewd signings like Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye. Newcastle made a very solid start of the season though and an early derby win at Sunderland by 1:0 provided the sort of lift that the squad needed. They went on on a superb unbeaten run that stretched to November when leaders Manchester City got the better of them. In the meantime, Ba was playing as well as any striker in the league while Cheik Tiote and Cabaye were proving superb in midfield. Newcastle were playing expansive attacking football while being quite solid at the back. They also showed tremendous grit to get a draw away at Manchester United but hit a rough patch of form in December when Norwich and West Brom got the better of them. However, Pardew had managed to build a squad that work for each other and believe in their abilities and they recovered spectacularly to beat Manchester United 3:0 in a memorable game early in 2012. The Magpies remained strong at home but were prone to some shockers on the road with Fulham and Tottenham putting each five goals past them. At that stage it looked like a good season will peter out with Newcastle keeping their place in the top six but then the teams above then started to drop points regularly while at the same time Pardew switched to a 4-3-3 formation from 4-4-2 to accommodate a back-in-the-mood Hatem Ben Arfa. That, coupled with Papiss Cisse taking the league by storm since his January move, meant that Newcastle won six games on the trot and actually moved to fourth place in the table in April. They had their fate in their own hands but a 4:0 thumping away at Wigan cost them dear and they were unable to get anything from champions-to-be Manchester City as well. Therefore, Newcastle did not manage to pull off the feat of finishing fourth but they won so many friends this season with their style and dedication while Pardew was rightly presented with the manager of the season award for moulding and leading the best Newcastle side since the Bobby Robson times ten years ago.
