Pardew confident Newcastle can continue promising form in 2014

Alan Pardew says Newcastle can maintain their fine form in 2014 if they stay injury-free and don't gift teams goals like they did against Arsenal.

The Magpies were narrowly beaten 1-0 by the Premier League title contenders when Olivier Giroud took advantage of sloppy marking from a set-piece to nod the visitors in front.

Pardew said: ";We’re in there [challenging the top] and if all our games against the top teams are as tight as that then I’m happy because we’ll win as many as we’ll lose.

"I can’t think of a chance they’ve had in the second half except the goal. The last thing you expect to lose to Arsenal with is a set-play.

"In a way Giroud was sort of the villain today. He had a couple of injuries he over elaborated on, he was winding the crowd up and he ended up getting the winner. I’m frustrated we didn’t defend that better."

Newcastle finish the year in eighth with 33 points, compared to last season when they were 16th, 13 points worse off than they are now and set to face a relegation battle.

"We’ve just got to try and do the best we can and 33 points at this stage is a great effort but we can replicate that," the Toon chief added.

"We’ve got a sprinkling of fantastic players here and we need them all fit and that has been probably the secret to where we are now. If we keep them fit then we’ll be ok, we’ll be close."