We had been waiting to see the two Demba's for the best part of 3 weeks, and they marked their return with a goal each. Demba Number 1 with a real poacher's goal and Demba Number 2 with an absolute screamer which has allowed us to get a little bit excited over our new look strike force. First impressions of Cisse are very good with some excellent touches and running down the channels. One touch saw him control a Krul goal kick which he had no right to control in the way that he did. No better way to mark your debut than with a goal, and what a goal it was.

I should touch on Warnock's lunge on Ryan Taylor. It's easy to get carried away about things like this, especially given the controversy surrounding tackles since Kompany was (perhaps harshly) sent off. Since then, every sliding challenge has been analysed and assessed form all angles. We've also had pundits sticking the knife in on occasions, notably with the Cabaye incident against Brighton. It's interesting that not a lot has been said about the lunge on Taylor. I don't think it was mentioned on Match of the Day, not sure if it was on Sky's coverage either. The FA were so quick to react to Cabaye's challenge that he'd barely had a chance to out of the shower (steady now) before he was given a ban. There has been absolutely nothing said about Warnock and it does confuse me somewhat. The rules when it comes to analysing decisions retrospectively makes about as much sense as a Kenny Dalglish interview. It's very easy for us to get a "Northerner Inferiority Complex" given that the FA aren't looking at a southerners' challenge but they jumped on little ol' Newcastle's straight away. You can add this to the fact that Capello won't bring his massive bonce further north than The Emirates (not that this bothers me greatly as England games are more of a chore than a pleasure for me these days). However, watching Taylor get snapped in half with no action is frustrating. I wouldn't be so bothered if the FA just managed to maintain an element of consistency - but they don't, so it's little wonder that fans up and down the country throw their arms in the air and scream.

Back to the match. Whilst Villa looked shaky at the back, they are dangerous on the counter with the pace of Keane, Bent and N'Zogbia which had our hearts in our mouth on a couple of occasions. To come away with another win without our first choice midfield is tremendous and if we were to remain in 5th place when Tiote and The Dreamboat return it would set us up very nicely for the final 12 or 13 games.

After receiving plenty of stick in the last season and a half, Perch came into the holding midfield role for a second game and did a tremendous job. Nothing flash or spectacular, but he helped mop up when we were in danger of being over ran in the middle of the park. At one point he almost scored a screamer which I think would have resulted in some sort of black hole appearing over SJP. We are approaching the end of a period of time where many pundits predicted we would struggle without the likes of Ba and Tiote. Chuck Cabaye's suspension into the mix and you've got the best part of the spine of our team missing. The likes of Guthrie and Perch have come in and performed brilliantly. Guthrie has played really well when called upon and I think it's only right that we offer him a new contract. Along with Ryan Taylor, they have improved drastically under Pardew, Carver and Stone. We aren't in fifth place by fluke; you don't play two thirds of a season and not drop out of top 7 through luck. A combination of excellent performances and 90 minutes graft is what has got us to where we are. When we jumped up into third place after the Stoke game, we revelled in it and joked about Champions League and the UEFA Cup. I think that deep down; we felt that it was a false position and that we were perhaps riding on the crest of a wave. However, 13 or 14 games later we are still there or there abouts, one point behind Chelsea in 4th and ahead of Arsenal and Liverpool. The cynic in me says that Europe is perhaps just beyond us this season. Whilst there are some eminently winnable games to come, there are some tricky ones too. On the other hand, if we can keep key players like Krul, Coloccini, Tiote, Cabaye, Ba, Jonas and Cisse injury and suspension free there is no reason why we can't upset the applecart somewhat and pip one of the big boys into Europe. As a result, this would hopefully be enough to convince the likes of Colo and Ba that we are onto something special here.

Of course, this is Newcastle United and we all know that things can go horribly wrong very quickly. I'm just going to take each game as it comes. Let's see where we are towards the back end of March. What could possibly go wrong?