Very good points there.
In pre-season, I reckon Pardew knew where and how he was going to play Ben Arfa this season. Thus, you could say that Hatem's injury in the US was a setback for Pardew as he had to throw all his initial plans regarding the system out the window. This meant that he basically had to start again and develop an entirely different one, one which has turned out to have served us well for most of this season.