Alan Pardew admits he is trying to find the right balance for his Crystal Palace side ahead of their trip to West Ham on Saturday.

The Palace boss enjoyed a blistering start to life at Selhurst Park, but results have started to tail off.

The Eagles only won once in February and have suffered back-to-back defeats.

They are now five points above the Premier League relegation zone, but Pardew believes they can get it right and survive.

He said: “I have to get the balance right between what I want to see and what this team can do, and that’s been a learning process up until this point.

“I’m pretty confident about what I have and I think that this team can hopefully produce the performances to stay in this division.”

Pardew’s side go into this game after a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Arsenal.

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The Palace boss believes they were close to getting the right result in that game, but can take positives as they head to Upton Park.

He said: “The process was good against Arsenal, the game plan I wanted the team to do was almost fulfilled apart from one little area, getting the second or third goal.

“The bottom line is we lost, but we’ll look to carry that process into West Ham.”

The team may have to deal with a lack of firepower on Saturday with strikers Frazier Campbell, Yaya Sanogo and Marouane Chamakh injured.

However, Pardew will have Glenn Murray to call on, despite rumours linking him away from the club.

Pardew rubbished those rumours, saying: “I never envisaged after giving him a contract three weeks ago that he was going anywhere, that was complete rubbish and paper talk.

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“If all the guys were fit he’d still be here, and of course he is here and he is available for selection."

In other news, Mile Jedinak is, once again, unlikely to feature despite the club captain being fit following his return from international duty.

Pardew said: “Mile will be available, but we have had some fantastic performances in that area of the pitch.

“There’s a lot of completion in the midfield, Jordan Mutch coming in has improved that area as well.”