Pardew told BBC Sport: "We play a lot better than that usually. We missed Sissoko and I must look at myself in terms of selection of the team. We need to cope without him because he's not going to play every week. We tried to be ambitious and if that's a fault we have to accept that."
Where was this ambition?
Aye - reverted to type today. It's no wonder we struggle to score goals in the first half of games, when we are frightened to death to actually try and win from the off.
What's his excuses today?