Sam Allardyce says Crystal Palace are playing back to basics

Sam Allardyce says he has got his Crystal Palace side playing back to basics after their 2-0 win over West Brom on Saturday.

Superb goals by Andros Townsend and Wilfried Zaha mean Palace are now three points clear of the drop zone, following three wins in five Premier League games.

Allardyce, who joined the club in December, says he is performing similar tactics to when he took over at struggling Sunderland and Blackburn, and says Palace are now very hard to beat.

"I've seen what has been happening to Palace, like I saw at Sunderland and Blackburn, I said to the lads, look, this is how you stop it.

"If you apply yourselves in these areas the right way; the basics of the game, getting your position and passes and runs right, understanding where the space is, and being resilient.

"Those basics have to be worked on constantly to remind the players to get these right when you go on the field."

Palace spent £39m in January, more than any other Premier League club, and Allardyce says the new signings have pushed other squad members while also increasing the all-round quality of the team.

"I also said that the new players would make a difference, and that's certainly the case. [Mamadou] Sakho, Luka [Milivojevic], [Patrick] Van Aanholt, [Jeffrey] Schlupp when he came on, they have told the rest of the lad that this squad has more quality, and that quality is starting to pay off.

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"I think the new signings have lifted the rest of the players.

"We've started to do things right in the game now, and that's the most important thing, we never got our out-of-possession right until a few weeks ago, and we're putting it right constantly now. It's very difficult to score against us and hopefully that will continue."