NEWCASTLE UNITED will not fear any team in the build up to Christmas – even if it means relying on Premier League rookie Jak Alnwick between the posts over the next few weeks.

That's the message from Magpies midfielder Jack Colback, while further news is awaited on the severity of Rob Elliot’s thigh problem.

Alan Pardew, the Newcastle manager, has suggested that Elliot will not play again before the end of the year, although the Republic of Ireland international has undergone a scan to determine the extent of his injury.

Alnwick, who performed well as a half-time substitute in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Chelsea at St James’ Park, could be set for a decent run in the team because first choice Tim Krul is also unlikely to figure because of an ankle complaint.

The 21-year-old looks certain to be in goal at Arsenal this Saturday and then at Tottenham in the Capital One Cup quarter-final on December 17.

He could also, though, be in line to start against Sunderland, Manchester United and Everton before the turn of the year, although Newcastle have asked the Premier League about the possibility of an emergency loan signing. Chelsea's former Middlesbrough man Mark Schwarzer is among those under consideration.

That situation does not concern the Newcastle camp too much, with Colback heartened by the standard of the team’s performances since the 1-0 defeat at Stoke on September 29. From the ten games since, Newcastle have lost just once at West Ham and have collected 20 points from the last 27 available in the league.

Defensively Newcastle have kept six clean sheets during that run, although in Ayoze Perez and Papiss Cisse – who tend to lead the line – there is a belief that they possess the goals to cause any team problems; as they showed against leaders Chelsea.

“Papiss and Ayo pop up at the right moments for us. It’s great to have a finisher, where if they get one or two chances, they’re going to put one away,” said Colback. “The first goal’s massively important in this league. I think every time we’ve scored first, we’ve gone on to win or at least draw. It’s a great result for us.

“I think we’ve shown that we’ve not really feared anyone during our run – and then against Chelsea. We came out and gave them the respect they deserve, but not too much respect.

“If you give them too much respect, they’ll pass it round and brush you away like they have done to many sides. We got amongst them, tackled and competed. We showed our quality going forward as well.”

If Newcastle can pile on the frustrations for Arsenal fans at the Emirates on Saturday, then Pardew’s team could climb into the top four this weekend and will have leapfrogged the Gunners.

And the warning in the build up to the Arsenal trip is that Newcastle even think they can improve on what they did against Chelsea, despite memorably claiming victory.

“The manager is trying to get across to us that we have to pass the ball around well,” said Colback, a key cog at the heart of the Newcastle system. “Actually, after the Chelsea game, he told us that we could have played better and he was probably spot-on with that in terms of us keeping the ball because we were a bit loose at times. You can’t give away the ball to Chelsea because if you do then you’ll end up defending for a long time. We defended well all game but we don’t want to rely on that.”

Suddenly Newcastle can have a different approach to the January transfer window because of their positioning in the league. With the pressures on the manager eased after recovering from a dreadful start to the campaign, Pardew can look at ways of adding to a squad that looks stronger than it did six weeks ago.

The performances of younger players such as Sammy Ameobi, Paul Dummett and Mehdi Abeid have provided the boss with greater options, despite an extensive injury list which has had the likes of Davide Santon, Siem De Jong and Gabriel Obertan on it. Newcastle are understood to have started talking to Ameobi, out of contract next summer, about extending his time with his hometown club.