Newcastle's Alan Pardew hoping Loïc Rémy return will silence boo-boys

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/13/newcastle-united-alan-pardew-loic-remy-stoke-city

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Alan Pardew admits he does not feel fireproof despite the security of possessing the top-flight's longest managerial contract.

Newcastle supporters called for their manager's dismissal during the defeat at Stoke, which represented something of a sea change among the club's following. Their ire has previously been vented solely at the club's owner, Mike Ashley, the man who rewarded Pardew with a revised eight-year deal in September 2012.

"I don't feel safe. I never feel safe as a Premier League manager. We live five to six Premier League games as we go," Pardew said. "We've had four really tough games and unfortunately they've all resulted in defeats and no goals.

"That is a tough spell to have as a Newcastle manager, so the frustration I understand but I can only do the best job I can with the group I have, and I'm obviously trying to do that."

The mood at the end of this contest, in fact, was a complete contrast to the corresponding fixture on Boxing Day when Newcastle hit five against Stoke. Since that win – when the north-east club sat three points behind Liverpool – their season has imploded.

Erik Pieters' first-half fluke rubber-stamped an 11th defeat in 16 matches since, a period that has coincided with the big-money sale of the creative virtuoso Yohan Cabaye to Paris Saint-Germain and a seven-game touchline ban imposed on Pardew for his altercation with Hull's David Meyler.

Pardew hopes a sorry sequence of 360 minutes without a goal (opponents have scored a dozen in the same time) will be addressed with the return of Loïc Rémy, the on-loan QPR striker, from a calf injury against Swansea on Saturday. "He's been running this week, so we'll hopefully get a performance out of him that I think the club and the team need, particularly in terms of confidence," Pardew said. "To have somebody like that spearheading the team, in the form he was in before he went out – he's so important for us."

There are few players finishing the season as well as Stoke's Marko Arnautovic, an enfant terrible of the European scene flourishing under Mark Hughes. The Austrian's left-flank alliance with the Holland international Pieters has blossomed and on Saturday he supplied four pin-point potential assists to no avail.

"I think it's fair to say he came with a little bit of baggage but we were probably exactly what he needed," said Hughes, of the £2m acquisition from Werder Bremen. "He needed to get out of the environment that he found himself in in German football because of a few episodes. His personality is different and the players enjoy being around him. It's not easy to come in and have an impact, certainly as a creative player, but once he got to grips with it the second half of the season has been good for him and it's been good for the team."

Man of the match Marko Arnautovic (Stoke City)