Alan Pardew: 'Players will get first-team chances'

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew feels that his side's hectic fixture schedule in December will force him to rotate his side.

Several key players, such as Papiss Cisse and Hatem Ben Arfa have found themselves out of the lineup in recent weeks as the Magpies have gone on a four-game winning streak, and Pardew opted to stick with the same team.

He told the club's official website: "Steven Taylor, Hatem Ben Arfa, Papiss Cisse, Vurnon Anita, Jonas Gutierrez - they are all not playing at the moment and are desperate to play.

"We've got real competition for places and that bodes well. I wouldn't call them fringe players by any stretch of the imagination. I would class them as first-team players who are out of the team at the moment.

"We are going to need to freshen it up and change it from game to game as we go along, because there's so many games."

Newcastle are sixth in the Premier League after 13 games this season.