Ben Arfa

“When they say “go, go, go, take him on!” I feel like I can fly!”

Those were the words of Hatem Ben Arfa, describing playing for the Newcastle fans, after Saturday’s win at Aston Villa, in which he produced arguably his best performance in a black and white shirt.

Having seen Ben Arfa score a late and great winner against Fulham before the international break, Aston Villa will undoubtedly have had a plan to deal with him on Saturday. Unfortunately, there are very few teams that can stop the Frenchman when they catch him on a good day.

Like most NUFC fans will tell you Newcastle really do have some excellent players at their disposal. Keeping them all on the field in the starting eleven is the problem Pardew might face.

Credit must be given to Pardew for reverting back to the fluid 4-3-3 formation which served us so sell during the 2011-2012 season. For me this ia the eay forward for NUFC and sees us get the best out of our top players - no one more so that n Ben Arfa which is released of his shakles and give free rein to attack, attack, attack. After top performance at Villa park the groans of discontent from fans were replaced by a feeling of excitement and expectation.

For me the excitement of an away win was equaled by the delight in our overall performance. Our back four is solid with the partnership between Colo and Yanga M'biwa looking better each game. In the midfield the blend of Anita, Sissoko and Cabaye has the right amount of creativity while also being solid enough to withstand a onslaught, while an attack consisting of Ben Arfa, Loic Remy and Papiss Cisse carries a goal threat that has been missing Demba Ba left to warm the Chelsea bench.

A happy and on form Hatem Ben Arfa is a massive boost for NUFC and it gives us a match winner in our team. He seems to be settled and is enjoying playing for our club. It is clear his has struck up a connection with our fans and he certainly feels the love on Tyneside.

My fears was that even thought we out played Villa in the 1st half we only had a 1 goal lead and when you play against Christian Benteke there is always the chance he will grab a goal - he did and to be honest I feared the worse, however massive credit must go to Newcastle for not collapsing and going onto achieve a big away win due to a Yoan Gouffran.

Newcastle produced a great team performance with the obvious stand out star being Hatem Ben Arfa. Our mercurial Frenchman is in the form of his life at NUFC and if he can continue to reach these heights there is every hope he can fire NUFC to a top 7 finish.