I think what the last few games have eradicated at Newcastle is the inconsistency...

Aston Villa was a disappointing result, then they have come back home and were terrific against Manchester City and Southampton, and the away win over Sheffield United, who have been terrific this season under Chris Wilder, was a fantastic result and performance.

And you can't say they haven't deserved last week's results. Before the Sheffield United game there was a fear that Newcastle would once again dip back down. But they've proven that they can establish some consistency in their game, there's no doubt about it.

It was a great move for Steve Bruce to give Andy Carroll his first start against Sheffield United and then bring him off the bench on Saturday.

But most importantly Steve is getting the best out of Jonjo Shelvey. Lots of managers have tried. The ability that the lad possesses is unquestioned. It's just been getting that consistency, that's where he has struggled wherever he has been, getting him to work off the ball as well. And I think Steve is getting that from him.

This is the best Jonjo has played for Newcastle, it's the most consistent he has played. He's scored three in his last three and he looks exactly like what everyone thought he was going to be since he came through the ranks at Charlton.

He's looking a top, top player and his form is mirroring what the team is doing. There's lots of reasons to be optimistic for Newcastle fans, the team is playing well and look well drilled and they're getting some terrific results.

DUBRAVKA ONE OF THE BEST

I always go back to the late, great Brian Clough when he talked about recruitment. He always said if you get the goalkeeper position right, he'll win you 12 to 15 points over the season. That's massive. It's absolutely essential to get that right. And Newcastle have certainly done that with Martin Dubravka.

He has to be one of the best signings in Newcastle's history, without a doubt, especially with the amount of money that they paid for him. When you think about today's market and the ridiculous fees being paid. You could tell in one of his first games against Manchester United that he was just outstanding.

And he's just continued that form and been superb. He's been a real, real top signing for the football club. Especially over the week where he pulled off a number of world-class saves. You'd have to say he is one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League.

If Newcastle are going to keep getting results this season, Dubravka will have to continue his form and I don't see any reason why he won't given his ability.

BOBBY ENJOYING NEWCASTLE

All the reports about my son Bobby are purely speculation. As I've wrote in this column in the past, I'm here for Bobby as his father to give him advice. I've been where he is at this moment in time.

We are a very, very proud family that he has been selected to represent England against the Republic of Ireland and Turkey. It's a great feat so we're extremely proud. He's getting coached very well at Newcastle's academy. Everyone who is there and the various different teams he plays in are terrific.

Ben Dawson, the head of coaching, I have a good relationship with and I have regular contact with him and talk about how Bobby is getting on. And I let them guys get on with coaching him and looking after him. They are doing a terrific job.

I'm always here if he wants to talk about things away from his coaches which sometimes he might want to do. But I'm certainly not in there telling him he should be doing this and doing that. That's up to his coaches.

He's going to have ups, like the stuff with England, and he's going to have downs, it's part of the young player's career, and he'll have us as a family when those tough times come. But overall I'm really happy with how he is going at the academy and the help he is getting there.

TWO CHOICES FOR ARSENAL

There's two possibilities for Arsenal to bring in as their new manager, and I would go and get him right now.

The first one, and I don't know if he would join Arsenal because of his affiliation with Tottenham, is Mauricio Pochettino. The other one is former Juventus manager Max Allegri. Those are the two coaches that I would earmark if I was Arsenal.

Both managers are proven in the work they have done before. Allegri is very much proven with trophies given his success in Italy. And while Pochettino might not have the same silverware, he certainly showed with the work that he done at Southampton and Tottenham that he could build teams from the ground up.

Somebody was quoted last week saying that Arsenal were one of the worst teams out of possession and I'd probably back that up.

What Arsenal need to do is get a group of players who are prepared to do the dirty side of the game without the ball, the horrible side of the game. Liverpool are terrific at it, as are Manchester City. They need to start getting that work done before they can challenge the top teams. Because if you're not very good without the ball and you concede cheap goals quite regularly, which Arsenal do, you're going to find it very difficult to win games even if you have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette.

I think they now need a manager who can get them organised and who is going to be able to attract the best players again. As I spoke about earlier, they need to build a team from the back and get an organisation and structure where they are hard to beat.

MESSI CAN ECLIPSE MARADONA

I personally think that Virgil van Dijk was unlucky not to win the Ballon D'Or last week. He has been outstanding since arriving at Liverpool.

But in saying that, you also can't say that Lionel Messi was totally undeserving of the trophy given his statistics at Barcelona last season. He's an exceptional footballer.

I'm a huge Maradona fan, obviously he was the star when I was growing up and I had the chance to watch him. But I just hope Messi can win something with Argentina, because that will probably put him above Maradona. That's the only thing that he is missing.