Pardew rues tired Palace

Alan Pardew felt that Crystal Palace suffered from the quick fixture turnaround as they were held to 0-0 by Swansea City on Monday.

Palace were lacklustre in the first half at Selhurst Park and barely threatened the Swansea goal – their lethargic performance coming off the back of a 0-0 draw with Bournemouth on Saturday.

They improved somewhat after the break, but continued to lack quality in the final third.

Late chances for Wilfried Zaha and Patrick Bamford could have earned them all three points, however they were unable to beat Lukasz Fabianski.

“It was tight game, but looking at my team, it looked like we’d played two days ago,” said Pardew. “We lacked a spark, we’re a high-energy game team. 

“But I can’t be disappointed. Swansea set up to make sure they got something out of the game. There were a lot of changes in their team and they got their shape very quickly. It never really opened up. 

“[However], we’ve got 31 points after 19 games, that’s fantastic for us.”

Palace’s first game of 2016 will see them host Chelsea on January 3, although they will do so without playmaker Yohan Cabaye after he was shown a fifth booking of the season following a coming-together with Jack Cork – much to the frustration of his manager.

Pardew added: “We’ll miss Yala [Yannick Bolasie], [Connor] Wickham and now Cabaye [against Chelsea].

“That was a terrible decision for the referee to book Cabaye.”