8. United's Performance Away At West Brom (2011/12)
It's time for a dark horse... It was a performance of total football that harked back to the days of Messrs Robson and Keegan. It was that good. Newcastle were on course to finish in a European place as the 2011/12 season drew to a close, so in typical fashion, and contrary to the rest of his tenure in charge, Alan Pardew went gung ho and played 4-3-3. The attacking trio of Hatem Ben Arfa, Demba Ba and new arrival Papiss Cisse terrorised quite literally everyone in their path - with West Brom bearing the brunt of it in a half of scintillating brilliance from Pards' Mags... Newcastle found themselves 3-0 up after 34 minutes thanks to a goal from HBA and a brace from their new number nine. The brand of football played on that sunny afternoon in Birmingham is exactly what United fans want to see from their team and was an utter joy to watch. Could it have been a dream? The rest of the current Crystal Palace manager's reign at St James' Park suggests it was... United would win the game 3-1 in the end, but the scoreline doesn't do anything that happened on that pitch any sort of justice. Who knew Barcelona played in the Barclays Premier League for an afternoon?
