Pardew claims bad refereeing decisions are costing Eagles dear

ALAN PARDEW has claimed Palace players are losing faith in Premier League justice after the dubious defeat to Manchester United – and the FA’s failure to punish Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Referee Craig Pawson failed to send off Marcus Rojo for a two-footed challenge and then allowed Paul Pogba’s offside goal to stand after the Swede handled in the build-up.

And a panel of former officials then decided Ibrahimovic should not be charged for elbowing Yohan Cabaye.

Last weekend Robert Snodgrass admitted he had dived to win a spot kick for Hull City – and Palace were also denied two strong penalty appeals by Mike Jones. Referee Jon Moss will be the man in the middle for today’s lunchtime clash with leaders Chelsea. And Pardew admitted: “We’ve been a little bit disappointed in the last few games with some of the refereeing decisions we’ve had but we can only try to force the luck our way. “The team is fighting and if we continue that then hopefully some of those decisions will go our way and that’s all we can say to the players. “The players are questioning it a little bit. “Retrospective action is always controversial. “There are other incidents in the game I would rather the referee had picked up on.” Pardew said Antonio Conte’s side looked “unbeatable” after 10 consecutive victories but insisted Manchester City’s start to this season, and Ron Atkinson’s Manchester United team in 198586, proved the title race is not yet run. Pardew (left) said: “Momentum can change very quickly in the Premier League.

“Momentum was with Man City at the start of the season. Everyone was saying they were going to walk away with it.

“I vaguely remember Manchester United winning their first 10 games and not winning the league many years ago so it doesn’t mean that this period is going to get them the title.

“There are still a lot of things that can happen.

“If you lose momentum, it just takes one game. It might be a sending-off, or something out of their control.

“The law of averages says it doesn’t always go your way all the time. They’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Pardew insisted Chelsea’s run was not down to the switch to a 3-4-3 formation.

“You could put this Chelsea squad in a 4-4-2 and they’d be very difficult to beat because they’ve got players playing at the top of their game,” he added.