Hatem Ben Arfa's first-half magic for Newcastle crushes West Bromwich

Papiss Cissé believes language difficulties make it hard for him to communicate with his Newcastle team-mates, so it seems reasonable to speculate just how prolific he will be once he makes English the fifth language he has mastered. Particularly if Hatem Ben Arfa is on the pitch.

Ben Arfa, working in combination with Cissé and Demba Ba, was unplayable on Sunday, so much so that the game was effectively over after 35 minutes. Two of the goals were scored by Cissé to make it five in six games for the Senegal international. But both were made by Ben Arfa, and the young French midfielder scored himself with a run that so confused the Albion defenders that not one dared make a challenge before it ended with a finish deep inside the Albion penalty area.

The win leaves Newcastle level on points with Chelsea in fifth, and such was their potency it seems perfectly possible they will maintain the pressure on the London side until the end of the season. When it was pointed out to Alan Pardew that the Magpies were only five points behind Spurs in fourth, the Newcastle manager shook his head, however.

"I don't think so. There are a lot of games left and I don't think we've got the strength in depth. We lost [Fabricio] Coloccini today, and that's going to be a big blow to us going into the Liverpool game, but it's a game that all of the North-east can look forward to."

Well, Tyneside, certainly, especially with Ben Arfa in this sort of form, although the loss of the experienced and calming Coloccini to a hamstring injury is certainly a blow. Newcastle were not the same team at the back after Coloccini went off at half-time, prompting a reshuffle which gave West Bromwich the opportunity to establish a foothold in the game.

That, however, was after Newcastle had ripped them apart on the break in the opening period. The manner of the first goal, which saw Jonás Gutiérrez playing in Ben Arfa on the left and the unmarked Cissé turn in the resulting low cross, set the tone, although Ben Arfa still had much to do six minutes later when he picked up Cissé's pass a few yards inside the Albion half. Not facing a challenge made it easier, though such was his close control, the timing of a tackle would have had to have been perfect. The third came shortly after the half-hour, Ba's backheel giving Ben Arfa the room he needed to pull the ball back for Cissé to beat the Albion goalkeeper Ben Foster with a first-time shot.

Albion's head coach, Roy Hodgson, shuffled his pack at the break, and the Baggies, considerably assisted by Coloccini's withdrawal, at least began to compete. They pulled a goal back through Shane Long after confusion between the Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul and defender Mike Williamson, but as Hodgson acknowledged, it was essentially an exercise in damage limitation, and any chance of a comeback ended when James Morrison had to be carried off with all three substitutes already used.

For Pardew, it was Ben Arfa's best performance in a Newcastle shirt. "He got the balance right today between working hard for the team and bringing his flair to the pitch.

"A couple of his bits of play were mesmerising, and if I was the France national coach I would consider him, because there are not many players who can do what he can and he might be nice wild card to have in the squad. In the past he had a reputation in France for being an enfant terrible, but he's been really focused here, his mindset is in a really good place."

Hodgson acknowledged his side had been outplayed: "The quality they showed was far superior to that which we showed – the passing, the ball control, the movement, was much better than ours. A lot of our players had an off day on the ball."

Asked about comments he had made about the England managerial vacancy, Hodgson sighed. "I was asked if I would take it and replied that it would seem to me as an Englishman you would need a very good reason to turn it down," he responded.

（一个慢牛）