Pardew urges his players to seize second spot

A fourth home win of the season would see the Magpies leapfrog Manchester United, and while Sir Alex Ferguson's side would reclaim their position if they beat Sunderland later in the afternoon, a top-two position at the start of November would still represent a significant achievement, no matter how short-lived it turned out to be.

A win or draw today would also see Newcastle extend their unbeaten league start to 11 matches, and with the end of the international break signalling the start of a challenging three-game spell that pits the Magpies against Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea, Pardew is keen to see his players engineer a situation where this month's game at the Etihad Stadium could pit the only two unbeaten sides in the league against each other.

"It's a huge motivation to potentially go second," said the Newcastle boss. "In my mind, there are a couple of goals for this game.

"The first is to possibly go second, even if it is just for a few hours in the afternoon. And the second is for us to get to the Manchester City game unbeaten because I think that would be a real coup for us as a club. That's what we're going to try to do."

Prior to the start of the season, Pardew claimed it would be possible to assess where his side stood after they had completed ten matches.

Monday's trip to Stoke was game number ten, and Demba Ba's second hat-trick in five games fired Newcastle into a top-three position.

Few expect them to stay there, and while Pardew admits his side have exceeded expectations in the opening three months of the campaign, the impending challenge of facing the current top three in successive weekends is tempering his willingness to look too far into the future.

"I haven't raised my targets yet," he said. "I did say that ten games would be an indicator of what sort of team we would be, and I think that is a good barometer.

"But because of the next month in front of us, perhaps it gives me a little bit more breathing space to find out. Now, we are obviously going into a run against the real quality sides in the division. After that, I think we'll know a little bit more. But we've certainly proven we are a decent side."

Today's game will provide another indication of just how good they could be, and in many respects it offers a new kind of test to a side that have revelled in confounding expectations so far.

In most games this season, Newcastle have started as the underdogs. Today, they will be widely expected to beat an Everton side that slipped into the bottom five when they lost at home to Manchester United last weekend.

Mentally, the task of justifying favouritism poses different hurdles to overcome, but at least Newcastle's players will enjoy the support of a crowd that could be St James' Park's biggest of the season.

It looks as though today's attendance will break the 50,000 barrier, something Pardew feels is further evidence of a new positivity within a fanbase that is gradually tempering its deep-rooted enmity towards owner Mike Ashley and managing director Derek Llambias.

"The Geordies put the attendance at the ground high on their list of priorities and we're thankful for that," he said. "It means so much to them and that's great.

"If we do get 50,000 in this weekend it would be fantastic. We're trying to encourage that because I genuinely do think the players deserve it. Whether we can back it up again on Saturday, I really hope we can."

Newcastle will be without Gabriel Obertan this afternoon as the French winger has suffered an infection to his toe that could sideline him for a number of weeks. Sylvain Marveaux is expected to take his place and make his first start in the Premier League.

The other major doubt relates to Cheik Tiote, who will undergo a late fitness test on the injured knee that kept him out of Monday's victory at the Britannia Stadium. If Tiote misses out, Danny Guthrie will retain his place at the heart of midfield.