Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew is delighted with the way his squad has performance in the first quarter of the season.

Running through his team, Pardew clearly has confidence in their ability. And he insists he was never particularly worried about whether they'd be able to make an impact this season.

"I was confident in the defence. We went into the summer without losing any of our defenders so I was quite confident about our defenders," he told the Sunday Sun.

"Obviously (losing) Enrique was a blow. We brought in Santon and I've been happy with him - he will definitely improve it. We have got a good player - a player who will improve - and we've got the bonus of Ryan Taylor, of course. And he has been a bonus.

"I was always happy with that side of it. Midfield I was very happy with - we had Jonas, we had Cheick, I knew Cabaye was a very, very good player. Then we have Marveaux and Obertan.

"With the strikers from last year, they'd all done terrific for me and then I brought Demba Ba in here. And I knew I had Hatem coming back. So I wasn't as negative as others - when you think about it, it was never that bad."