Ahead of Newcastle's must-win game against Swansea City - a tough ask to say the least - Alan Pardew gave a short interview with Sky Sports News to get his excuses in early. Talking about the change of system and personnel that he oversaw as part of an attempt to freshen things up and take advantage of the possession his side have enjoyed, Pardew also spoke about one of Swansea's individual stars. And the name should ring some bells for anyone keeping track of the hundreds of thousands of players Newcastle were linked to in the summer. In between insisting that Gabriel Obertan deserves his starting slot, and that Papiss Cisse starts because he had scored two wonder goals in the past at the Liberty, the manager praised Jonjo Shelvey for getting into the England squad. The bald midfielder was a surprise inclusion in Roy Hodgson's international squad, as Jack Colback was a month or so ago, and he knows how to punish Newcastle, being a big part of the four victories in a row the side have managed over their opponents today. There are two ways to think about this: either Pardew is making excuses ahead of the defeat and saying "how could we cope with an England international?" or he's playing transfer system mind-games. There's a chance Shelvey is still on Pardew's radar, but it's more likely that Pardew wanted Shelvey in the summer and wasn't allowed him, and is now basically taking the opportunity to show how wrong everyone except him was about the newly called up midfielder. Either way, it seems a little odd that the manager would praise an opponent minutes before kick-off.
