Pardew: Palace still in a relegation battle

Matt Stead

Alan Pardew admits Crystal Palace are not yet safe from Premier League relegation this season.

The Eagles sit 10 points above the Premier League’s bottom three, having lost their last five league games, and Pardew knows they need to reverse that run.

Pardew, whose side travel to 16th-placed Swansea on Saturday, said: “We would be foolish, a club of our size, to assume that we are…safe yet because we don’t.

“We have 31 points, we need to find more than 42 because one of my old teams went down on more than 42, it could be one of those years.

“You look at the league table and you know the bottom clubs are going to find some form to save themselves and get into an honourable position, so we have to have one eye on that situation.

“Having said that, we are only two points behind Liverpool. We are kind of in the middle, so we could push on and still have a great season in the league.

“Our points total is greater (at this stage of the season) than it was in the two years we have been in the Premier League, so there are some positives, but I am not going to escape from the fact that our recent record is a cause for concern and we need to put it right.”

But the 54-year-old believes the tough period his side are going through will stand them in good stead come the business end of the campaign.

Pardew said: “That is the Premier League for you, it is difficult to win in the Premier League.

“Sometimes when you win a couple of games and you are on a role you take it for granted a little bit. We are not taking anything for granted at the moment, we are not in that mode at all, we are fighting for everything.

“It’s a two-edged sword, I don’t want to put our heads in the sand and dress it up.

“We have to face reality, that is where we are and there is a bit of pressure on us and we need to deal with it.

“It will stand us in good stead at some point, whether it is a big cup game we have coming up at Tottenham, pressure near the end of the season (if) we are sucked into the relegation zone or we are fighting for Europe and we have to win the last four. We have to play under pressure and this year the pressure hasn’t really kicked in. Now it has.

“They (the players) know if I am saying it then it has some clarity because I only dream about the top, I don’t look at the bottom.

“They are not stupid, this is a wise squad and they won’t take their eye off the target.

“That target for us is the same as everybody’s – 40 points.”