Alan Pardew says he’s completely changed his mind about Newcastle this season now

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Alan Pardew made a huge claim about Newcastle United last week, but now he’s completely changed his mind after a heavy defeat to Arsenal.

It’s safe to say that Newcastle weren’t at their best on Saturday night and their dreams of making it back to back seasons in the Champions League now looking to be fading away.

Pardew had actually tipped the magpies to still be in a top four race just last week, but now, speaking on talkSPORT, the former Newcastle manager has claimed they are well and truly out of it.

Pardew thinks Newcastle are too far off CL places

Newcastle headed into this season full of optimism having achieved Champions League status for the first time in two decades and making some big summer signings to strengthen the squad.

However, reality soon hit with their new star player Sandro Tonali given a 10-month ban for gambling and then the team the suffered an early exit from the European tournament at the group stage.

Despite that, there was some hope they could get back into the competition once their fixture list calmed down and players returned from injury, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough fight in the team at the minute.

Against Arsenal, while they were still missing some key players, Newcastle looked like the team that were threatened by relegation just two years ago, with so many of them looking lost and completely off their game.

When aske if they were still in the race, Pardew said: “No. You took me down that line last week and you’re trying to correct me because my heart was leading my head, but now my heart has gone to one side and my head has taken over.”

Newcastle heading towards a mid-table finish

There was not an expectation for Newcastle to maintain their top four status for two years in a row, even some of the top teams in England struggle to do that on a consistent basis.

However, there will have at least been a hope from those at the top that Europa League or Conference League was definitely a possibility as Newcastle look to make their name in Europe once again.

Currently, Newcastle look destined to finish in a mid-table position having been overtaken by Wolves at the weekend and now at risk of dropping into to bottom half below West Ham and Chelsea.

Eddie Howe must now be feeling the pressure and he’s got two big games coming up in the Premier League and FA Cup which could define Newcastle’s season.