DESPITE an impressive goal return this season, Papiss Cisse is still not sure whether he will be leading the line for Newcastle United at Arsenal this weekend.

Cisse’s appearances have been restricted since returning from a serious knee injury and he has only made four starts for the Magpies since the start of the campaign.

Yet, regardless of his failure to hold down a place in Alan Pardew’s team because of fitness concerns, Cisse still leads the way in the club’s scoring charts after netting seven times in just nine Premier League outings so far.

The emergence of Ayoze Perez has certainly helped Pardew’s preparations and team planning while the concerns over Cisse’s knee troubles have remained.

But the Senegal striker insists that he is ready to play more of a starting role and that he no longer has any worries – even if his manager does.

“I feel fit. I’m good,” said Cisse. “I just need to keep going in the gym all the time. I can’t stop doing that because otherwise it will not help with my comeback. I try to go all the time but I am feeling very, very good.

“The injury is not difficult to manage, I just need to do my gym work and I do it all the time. I am OK. The gaffer just made the decision to put me on the bench. I don’t know why but I’m OK. I’m confident I will fully recover.

“I’m not young now, I’m 29. I’m not angry, I just wait for my time and even if it’s just five minutes I will try to do well for those five minutes. I will wait to see if I play against Arsenal, I’ll work hard in training this week and see if the gaffer will play.”

The £9m man has looked to be on his way out of Tyneside during the last two transfer windows, only for interest from Middle East and Russian clubs not to lead to a successful deal.

And while Newcastle might have been willing to listen to offers for him earlier this year, the fact that Cisse has stayed on Tyneside has been crucial to the turnaround after a dreadful start to the campaign.

“I’m happy here,” said Cisse. “It’s been a good week. It was not an easy game against Chelsea so this gives us lots of confidence going forward. I’m very happy. I say it all the time, but I am just doing my job. All the players are happy, the gaffer as well. The team is just happy because if all the fans are happy, the team is happy. So we are all just happy.”

Cisse scored the two goals to defeat Chelsea at St James’ Park last Saturday despite starting the game on the bench again. That took his tally to seven and only Sergio Aguero, Diego Costa, Alexis Sanchez and Charlie Austin have scored more in this Premier League season.

He said: “I don’t think about how many goals I’m going to score, I’m just happy to play and to score. I like scoring in every game I play. I try to just do my best.”

Pardew is still stressing the need for a new striker when the January transfer window opens and Anderlecht’s young talent Aleksandar Mitrovic has been watched.

The 6ft 2in 20-year-old scored against for the Belgians in the Champions League group game with Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday and Newcastle are one of a number of Euiropean clubs keeping an eye on him.