Newcastle boss Alan Pardew is keen for his players to maintain contact with the Premier League's pacesetters. The Magpies are without a win in their last five games, but still sitting in seventh place in the table after an impressive start to the campaign.
"Whether we have got a strong enough squad to keep us consistently in the top seven all year, we will have to wait and see.
"But certainly, we still have a nice margin over the rest.
"Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea are way, way above us in terms of budgets and everything else, so we are doing absolutely fabulously, make no mistake about that." He said: "Our best team can compete with any team in this Premier League.
