Obviously from a fan's perspective, the correct tactic is always "play attacking, positive football for ninety minutes," because that's what we want to see. But sometimes it's not the best way to get a result.
There are matches, particularly in two-legged elimination ties, where you have to "craft" the win like Pardew did today. Honestly I'm surprised because I thought this level of sophistication was beyond him.
I'm going to bookend this by saying that I still think Pardew is pretty boring and would look to replace him if possible, just to pre-empt the instinctive abuse.