CRYSTAL PALACE: Bolasie goal important for more reasons than one, says Pardew

A draw edged Palace nine points clear of the drop zone, and manager Alan Pardew insisted his FA Cup semi-finalists took full advantage of a perennial Arsenal weakness at home.

The downbeat Gunners boss, whose side have slipped to fourth this weekend, said: “After the game today I am not in the mood to dream about the championship”.

“All the Arsenal fans boo me and when I look back I understand where everything went wrong but there are certain things in life you can not come back to any more, you just look at it and say “okay I made a mistake”. Ozil was the chief architect behind most Arsenal attacking moves and had his teammates been in goal scoring form they could easily have found the back of the net a few times yesterday.

“In the end we got caught with basically a unique shot on goal from Crystal Palace”.

Manchester City, which has played same number of matches with Arsenal, is also having 60 points and at the third position.

‘Even when something is going against us in a game, we have to focus on ourselves and not get distracted by anything else.

“We lacked a change of pace, our passing was a bit slow”.

“I am more in the kind of mood to fix the mental damage and prepare for the next game (on Thursday against West Brom)”.

The Eagles equalised late into the game when Yannick Bolasie fired a shot from outside the box to level the scores. “We will see where we stand at the end of the season so we must stick together”.

Yet before kick-off at Ashburton Grove and after the Foxes had been held at home by West Ham in the early game, the difference between the two clubs was a yawning 14 points. This meant that for Arsenal, although they were able to maintain possession in the middle of the field, they found difficulty once faced with trying to get the ball into the box.

Petr Cech admitted Arsenal blew a great chance of claiming three points against Crystal Palace and insists the team will try and win all their remaining games.