Got to say, it was quite puzzling to see him deploy a 4-4-2. The 4-3-3 has been working brilliantly recently so don't really know why he felt the need to change the system today. I guess Pardew was trying to counteract the 5 in midfield for Bolton? Still though, we were well below par in the first half today. We weren't too bad but we were by no means good - could be down to fatigue from playing two games in such a short space of time or could be down to the tactics, I don't really know (could have even been a bit of both!).
Pardew made the correct substitutions and at the right time though. Bringing Fergie on gave us that extra bit of energy we lacked in the first half and Ba was correctly substituted because he did look knackered and was ultimately not too much of a threat (unfortunately). All in all though, it was a fantastic result so I'm pretty happy.
I'm sure we'll see the 4-3-3 back in action for Stoke btw. In the meantime, time for a nice rest for the players.