Alan Pardew: "I was honest with him Yohan the way along.
"The bottom line is the player has a true character and he added an x-factor for us today.
"When you are at the top of the Premier League you can't stay there unless you have got x-factor and he gives us that.
"We have just got a team that believes in what it is doing, it has a functionality about it that is thorough in terms of its professionalism, no-one is shirking responsibility. It is making us a difficult team to undo.
"We had a game plan to try and take the sting out of the pressure they exert on you and we couldn't have done it any better really.
"The players were very accurate with their passing today and we looked comfortable almost from the kickoff, but you still need great players to play well and we had some outstanding players out on the pitch today.
"I thought Coloccini and Debuchy were outstanding in their positions.
"It is difficult to single out individual players because it was such a great team performance and it was a sweet feeling for me to come back to a club that I love and see my team play like that."