With more than a quarter of the season gone, Newcastle United remain unbeaten in the Premier League, stand third in the table and, after conceding only seven goals, boast the division's meanest defence. How, particularly after radically cutting costs, has Alan Pardew pulled it off?

The Gallic charm offensive

In conjunction with Newcastle's influential super-scout, Graham Carr, the board took a strategic decision that France was the place where they should be aiming to do much of their transfer market shopping. The cross-Channel presence of technically adept players on comparatively low wages explains why French is the predominant language in Pardew's dressing room. The club has adopted a Gallic charm offensive which has seen leading European agents receiving the best hospitality Tyneside can offer after touring the team's new state of the art training facilities.

Similarly French media have offered Newcastle some priceless publicity after consistently being granted generous access to Pardew's players and finding powerfully persuasive compatriots such as Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa eager to talk about the manager's healthy disdain for "le hoof ball" and reassuring refusal to rush individuals back from injury. "Don't underestimate Newcastle United's pulling power in France," says Carr, a frequent user of Newcastle-Paris shuttle flights and convenient onward connections. "I would say that outside the traditional top four we're the biggest draw. Playing in front of 52,000 at St James' Park is a big attraction."

Switching to a possession game

Pardew believes the ability to retain and monopolise possession is an essential prerequisite to sustained success. Under his management, Newcastle have begun exerting greater control over games while passing and moving with increased fluidity. Not that Pardew's quest for what he terms "rhythmic" football is based merely on aesthetics. Big on statistics, his perusal of computer print-outs have more than vindicated the controversial decision to sell the side's popular, but not always fluent, former captain, Kevin Nolan to West Ham.

"The stats we're producing in games excite me," says Pardew, whose signing of Cabaye, the France playmaker, from Lille, has been integral to this philosophical makeover. "Our passing levels are up and our passing has certainly improved in terms of controlling games. That's something we needed to get better at. Last year we got into winning positions but couldn't control things sufficiently to stop the other team putting pressure on us. In one recent game though we achieved 400 plus passes, which we hadn't done since I've been here. That puts you up with the top sides."

Pardew is Hodgson in disguise – with a twist

Like Roy Hodgson at West Brom, Pardew believes the devil is in the training-ground detail. During a typical practice session Newcastle's manager stands, whistle to lips, in the centre circle, frequently halting play to adjust individual positioning and suggest alternative runs. Such instinctive analysis is underpinned by Newcastle's deployment of not one but three expensive computerised GPS tracking systems which monitor each player's every movement in both games and training. Before matches, the squad are given an in-depth analysis of their opponents' tactical ploys and foibles. During such meetings all players are encouraged to voice ideas and opinions.

Meanwhile the dramatically improved defenders have extra duties. They attend additional pre-match tutorials concentrating, specifically, on dealing with set pieces and resisting specific attacking manoeuvres. Steven Taylor, the centre-half, says Pardew is the "hardest to please" and "most demanding" of the nine managers he has played under on Tyneside. "He's always on my tail," says Taylor. "His standards are so high it's hard to make the manager smile. He's a perfectionist but he's got us really playing together as a defence."

Captain Colo and his crew

Fabricio Coloccini's habit of always endeavouring to build play from the back is a cornerstone of Newcastle's revamped style but the thoroughly renascent Argentina centre-half has also defended brilliantly since being made captain. Like Taylor, Coloccini arguably feels better able to express himself, on and off the field, since the departure of his larger than life predecessor Nolan and the outspoken Joey Barton.

Some fans feared Newcastle's morale might crumble with the dissolution of the old, powerful, players' committee – (in addition to moving Nolan and Barton on, Pardew has loaned Steve Harper to Brighton and sidelined Alan Smith) – but Coloccini demurs. "Our character is different to before," says a man described as a "Rolls Royce person and a Rolls Royce player" by his manager. "We have a winning mentality which may have been missing last year. We have a great changing room who push and challenge each other to produce their best. Our team has great personalities now."

Players in top form

Eyebrows rose when Pardew picked the young Dutch goalkeeper Tim Krul ahead of Harper but, benefiting from expert tuition from Newcastle's specialist goalkeeping coach, Andy Woodman, Krul has excelled. The Senegal striker Demba Ba, the only Premier League player other than Wayne Rooney to score two hat-tricks this season, has registered eight goals, with his latest treble at Stoke leaving Geordies "Walking in a Pardew Wonderland". Ba has a history of problems with his left knee. Leading surgeons advised other clubs, including Stoke, to avoid signing what one termed a "ticking timebomb" but, able to recruit Ba on a free transfer from West Ham, Pardew gambled. So far at least, Newcastle's meticulous medical team have kept a reportedly degenerative condition well in check.