Thanks to your 2-1 win over Tottenham, Chelsea’s defeat and Liverpool and Everton’s draws, you’re now in 4th place in the table. Newcastle profited the most from this round of Premiership games.

After our defeat at Bolton it was vital to beat Tottenham. To stay in the hunt for the Champions League spots, we had no choice. The three points were indispensable and I’m delighted that we achieved our mission. That’s one out of the way, now for Liverpool at home on Wednesday.

It’s another very important match as you are battling with Liverpool for one of the first four places…

It’s because of that that we won’t be partying too hard tomorrow night! (laughs) We’ll celebrate the New Year after the match and the ideal scenario would be to get the three points so that the celebrations would be complete. Because when we look over our shoulders, there are many teams chasing us. But you mustn’t forget that we’ve got a game in hand against Bolton at St. James’ Park. Should we win that, we’d be second on equal points with Manchester United and Chelsea.

Liverpool took a point from leaders Arsenal yesterday. What is your opinion of them?

Not everybody comes away from Highbury with a point. Even if Liverpool have gone nine games without a win, they’re still a dangerous outfit. They’ve got several great individuals and we’ll have to be careful if we’re to achieve our goal of taking three points in front of our fans.

How did the Tottenham game pan out?

We were a little lost at the beginning of the game as Tottenham were playing 3-5-2. They put us under pressure from the beginning but we were able to cope. Speed’s goal got us going and we pushed on to put the game out of reach.

Were you pleased with your performance?

It was a bit tough as the pitch was in a bad condition. It will be replaced after the Liverpool game. Therefore my performance didn’t stand out but the main thing is that Newcastle continue to take the points. I wish you a very happy New Year and I’ll speak to you before the end of the week.

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