McArthur fired the third in the second half, his shot deflecting off Geoff Cameron before flying into the net in the 72nd minute, and Townsend completed the rout by curling a bouncing shot home three minutes later.
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A slow start to the season is retrievable, as Stoke City have demonstrated by rising to finish ninth for each of he last three seasons; starting a game so sluggishly as to be two goals down in 11 minutes is something else.
“Clearly the start didn’t help our situation”, he said. When you lost in the manner we did, you can’t say anything back. At the moment we’re just chasing games.
“He has told us in no uncertain terms it is not on and it has got to change and there are a lot of places up for grabs”. It’s not like us.
Hughes has presided over four losses in a row, with three of those defeats seeing his side concede four goals.
The Staffordshire outfit are bottom of the Premier League after taking just one point from the opening five fixtures of their campaign.
Kelly retained his place in Pardew’s starting XI after a vehicle crash left Pape Souare with jaw and thigh injuries that are expected to rule him out for the coming six months, and Townsend said: ‘It has been a hard week. We are making silly mistakes and being heavily punished for it.
“We’re struggling to impact games in the way we’re capable of”. He is always up there with the top scoring centre-backs and is doing it again this season.
“Last year it hurt us (when he was injured)”.
Sunderland have had a shocking start to the season and they will know that they have to turn things around if they want to stay up at the end of the season.
“Obviously when you are conceding so many goals the confidence throughout the team is not great”, said defender Shawcross. “We gave cheap free-kicks away and we’re not dealing particularly well with those balls into the box”.
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James McArthur believes Crystal Palace can beat anyone in the Premier League after recovering from their slump to record consecutive victories. We’re definitely hurting, but the relationships in the dressing room – between players, and staff and players – are good.
