Toon Crier: Steven Taylor for England edition

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew is pushing for Steven Taylor to be included in England's World Cup Qualifying squad. Pardew says ,"it's bewildering" that Taylor isn't a member of the national team.

England manager Roy Hodgson has the final say on selection, obviously, and Taylor says it would be a dream come true if he were included in the side.

The Mag asks if Newcastle's success is because of Pardew or in spite of him.

Pardew says Adam Campbell was ready for his debut, and his first touch seemed to prove him right.

Campbell's appearance against Stoke was much to the delight of supporters on Twitter.

Poor Tony Pulis. The Stoke manager says Cisse was offsides on his goal, but shouldn't have been on the pitch anyway, plus the Potters deserved a penalty. I'd say "them's the breaks", but as Pulis points out, Stoke isn't getting any as of late.

Newcastle is nine points clear of the relegation zone, but are the lads safe? Sylvain Marveaux says that they are "nearly there".

Newcastle's Europa League opponent, Anzhi Makhachkala lost over the weekend, 2-0 to Mordovia Saransk, a team near the bottom of the Russian Premiere League table.

Our next match in the Premiere League is Wigan Away. Go check out SB Nation's Wigan blog, "Pie Eaters Footie" and say hello.

I haven't put anything up in this space yet because it kept hitting snags, but it appears that former Newcastle star Obafemi Martins will join MLS side Seattle Sounders FC.

Elsewhere around the SB Nation Soccer network....

Chelsea clawed back for a 2-2 FA Cup draw with Manchester United, and We Ain't Got No History says interim manager Rafa Benitez deserves some credit.

Because sometimes its good to check in on the neighbors, The Roker Report looks at the tactics that led to Sunderland's loss to QPR. (In all seriousness, their tactics pieces are good stuff!)

Aston Villa won this weekend and are, as of this moment, safe. 7500 to Holte is optimistic.

The MLS season is two weeks old, and Toronto may have scored the biggest upset of the season when they knocked off Sporting Kansas City. Waking the Red looks at how TFC did that.