ALAN Pardew said Crystal Palace's performance in the narrow defeat to Arsenal was the "best we've played."
Palace came inches from snatching a draw when Glenn Murray's header struck a post in injury time but it just wasn't to be for the home side.
Moments before, Murray had given Palace a lifeline when he bundled home from inside the six-yard box.
Pape Souare gave away a clumsy penalty early on to allow Santi Cazorla to convert from the spot before Oliver Giroud followed up Julian Speroni's save from Danny Welbeck's shot just before the break.
Pardew said: "We've took a tactical decision to take the game to Arsenal today and the first goal is a mistake by Pape, he should do better, and yet the call is tough on us because it looked like the incident was outside the box.
"So we find ourselves 1-0 down but we continued with our game plan and I was very pleased with our reaction, it's probably the best we've played since I've been manager and I include the victories in that.
"The second goal is offside and that should be made that call, more so than the first. It's a minute before half time and you have to get that call right.
"Still, the second half we continued with the game plan, we didn't change from it, we stayed on the front foot and took the game to Arsenal.
"And if the second one [goes in], the one that hits the post at the end and goes in the keeper's hands, sort of summed our day up really. It just wasn't to be.
"Probably the best players were on our team and yet we've lost and sometimes that happens but we'll have to take that confidence into West Ham.
"It's now about the next game."
