Alan Pardew says Crystal Palace ready for 'big fixture' at Burnley
Friday 4 November 2016 10:55, UK
Alan Pardew says Crystal Palace are ready to end their losing run in a "big fixture" at Burnley on Saturday.
The Eagles head to Turf Moor on the back of three straight defeats against West Ham, Leicester and last weekend's 4-2 loss to Liverpool at Selhurst Park.
They have also failed to keep a clean sheet in the league so far this season, so Pardew has been working on plugging the gaps in defence this week.
"Sometimes the Premier League fixture list makes if difficult," he said. "Leicester won the league, then we had Liverpool at home.
"The West Ham game we are kicking ourselves a bit about but our fans know we put in decent displays, so I am not overly concerned.
"I like to think the fans understand. They are a great group to work with they give me everything they've got. We've just fallen short in the last couple of games but there is no concern on my part.
"But this is a big fixture for both clubs - it could send us both up into the top 10."
Palace have been reportedly linked with a January move for Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic to fill the void left by Pape Souare, who was injured in a car crash in September.
But Pardew insisted: "There is no interest from us at all. Losing Souare was a blow to us as we haven't got the cover on the left that we would like, and if he doesn't come back soon then that's the only area we might look at.
"He's some way from being fit, but he'll be back around the window.
"We just need to get more action down our left-hand side, just to balance us up some more.
"We have worked hard on the training ground this week, and we'll see the result of that on Saturday. The clean sheets is something the media can hang around your neck so we need to get that off our backs.
"We are a really good technical team, with a really good spirit, and although we are in this little run I've no doubt we will get out of it."
