ALAN PARDEW refused to blame Crystal Palace's injury troubles for their poor performance against Chelsea.
 |
| Pardew will be expecting a step-up in performance from his players this weekend |
Palace were beaten 3-0 by the champions at Selhurst Park, meaning they are now without a win or a goal in three Premier League games.
And while Pardew will welcome back Bakary Sako with open arms this weekend as he struggles to find a fit striker on his books, the 54-year-old boss would not give his side excuses for allowing a struggling Chelsea side to dominate them on their own patch.
"There’s always context to games and you can always take positives from a defeat even in the manner that it was," Pardew said.
"We’re realistic enough to know that we should have done a better job on the day with the team that we had.
"We’re not going to lean on injuries and excuses. We got beaten by a better team because they were more efficient about what they did on the day.
"For us at Southampton we have to be more efficient that they are."
A win would have lifted the London side into fifth place in the Premier League above West Ham and Manchester United, heights Pardew can only of dreamt of when he took over the club in January 2015 sitting in 18th place.
Even with that defeat, Palace look well on course to qualify for Europe for next season and there is even a question over which competition that might be, although Europa League seems eminently more likely.
But with FA Cup favourites such as Chelsea and Manchester City required to focus on the league given their positon and its open nature, Pardew also has one very eager eye on the trophy in which they face Southampton, whom they beat 3-2 in an enthralling encounter in the same competition last time around.
"It was one of our best performances last year," Pardew added.
"Whether we can replicate that or not I don’t know, but we certainly have re-armed ourselves after the Chelsea game.
"We weren’t at our best. We need to get back and try and get a victory again. We’re really looking forward to it."
Post a Comment Blogger Facebook Disqus