Dowie's not downbeat despite rout

Crystal Palace now have an 11-day break until their next Premiership match against Birmingham and manager Iain Dowie remained in a positive frame of mind despite the the emphatic defeat at Highbury.

Palace remain fourth from bottom, just two points clear of Norwich but Dowie believes his players can learn from the manner in which Arsenal secured their 5-1 win.

He said: "Realistically, this was an isolated defeat because of the quality of the team we were playing against. But we can all learn from their movement. The rotation of Arsenal's front six was remarkable."

Dowie also took heart from the number of chances Palace created in the first half-hour when only a remarkable double-save by Jens Lehmann in the Arsenal goal, first from Dougie Freedman and then Andy Johnson, prevented Arsenal from falling behind.

Dowie added: "For 30 minutes we were very much in it. But then I thought that Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Jose Antonio Reyes and Robert Pires were in their pomp. Bergkamp is so clever in taking people where they don't want to go. His passing his sublime.

"But we have got to worry about us and our run-in. I can understand how people think it is now between the current bottom four but I don't buy that. There are still a lot of points to play for and we have yet to go to Blackburn. And what encourages me is that we are still creating chances."