Despite suffering defeat in the London derby at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon, Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew was more than pleased with the way his side approached the game against Arsenal.

After trailing by two for the entire second half, The Eagles came agonisingly close to snatching a point when Glenn Murray, just moments after pulling one back, headed against the post in the final minute of injury time and Pardew felt the Gunners were fortunate to get all three points.

“The message in our dressing room before the game was: ‘We have to come out and play a more competitive game even against the top teams and be brave’,” said Pardew.

“It was risky today what we did, to put Arsenal under the pressure that we asserted almost everywhere on the pitch.

“I think they’re (Arsenal) very relieved to come away with the points today and that in itself is a justification of how well my team has played, I’m very proud of them tonight and you won’t find me after a defeat saying that very often.”

In-form Oliver Giroud added to Santi Cazorla’s eighth minute penalty to give the visitors a two-goal cushion at the break and manager Arsene Wenger admitted victory was vital ahead of their Champions League tie against Monaco in midweek.

“What is important for me is to win because we fight like mad to come back into a strong position in the league and not to win today would have been disastrous,” said Wenger.

“It’s good preparation to win again because you recover quicker when you win, physically it was a very demanding game and a very difficult pitch, was hard and it took us a while to adapt to it.”

Victory in south-east London was an eighth win in nine for the Gunners and Wenger said he’s been pleased with the attitude of his players in recent weeks.

“I think the spirit is there, we want to keep that, it’s a very strong basis and I believe since December the team has gone up a level and you see that with the results,” the Frenchman added.