Yohan Cabaye Will Be Prime Transfer Option in January for Premier League Clubs

Forty-five minutes into the Monday night Premier League game between Everton and Newcastle United, most viewers could be forgiven for thinking they'd stumbled onto a replay of a Capital One Cup match from last midweek, featuring a top-flight side handing out a lesson to a lower-league outfit.

Such was the gap between the Toffees, 3-0 to the good at the break, and the Magpies, a broken, rudderless wreck of an outfit.

Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley in particular had left black-and-white defenders trailing in their wake on multiple occasions already, scoring three between them and seeing two more ruled out, before the away side's boss Alan Pardew saw fit to make a double halftime substitution to prevent further carnage.

The aforementioned duo will get much of the praise in the morning's press, and rightly so—not to mention the excellent Seamus Coleman—but Newcastle did manage to get themselves back into the game to an extent, largely thanks to the control and poise shown by Yohan Cabaye.

The former Lille midfielder replaced Hatem Ben Arfa at the interval and wasted no time in pulling a goal back with a spectacular strike from long range, but it was his all-round ability on the ball and his quality in finding space which hauled Newcastle back to some semblance of a Premier League outfit.

Cabaye was a rare positive for Newcastle on a night when the eventual 3-2 scoreline flattered them enormously. They were second-best from start to finish, and it certainly could have been worse had Everton not taken their foot off the pedal.

Positive was certainly the word for Cabaye's display.

Every time he picked the ball, his immediate outlook was to play a forward pass, to carry his team up the field and attempt to regain a modicum of respect to their game.

At age 27 and now finally a regular in the France side—at least until he was left out recently—Cabaye will be desperate to ensure his talents are not wasted on a team looking a million miles away from the new big threat they were supposed to be after an overachievement of fifth place in 2011-12. Right now, Newcastle are 16th in the Premier League, the same position they finished last season in.

Bridging this season and last, they have won just eight of their last 26 league matches and 10 of their last 35.

Newcastle are not going to take Cabaye anywhere even close to European football, certainly not under the current management and leadership. If he wants to show his best form on the biggest stage in the prime of his career, he will be looking for a way out sooner rather than later, apology or no apology.

Arsenal were interested in taking him during the summer transfer window, only to be quoted a price too high.

Come January, with Newcastle probably set to be floundering still around the lower reaches of the table, it is likely that he will ask to be allowed to leave for a lower fee than the Gunners refused to pay. Manchester United, Liverpool and other higher-end Premier League teams could certainly find a space in their squad for a player of his game intelligence and on-the-ball quality, if the price is right.

Even if he is not allowed to depart midway through the season, Cabaye is almost certainly in his final campaign at St. James' Park, having proven himself more than capable of having a big impact in English football.

Follow @karlmatchett