diff --git a/spacy/syntax/nn_parser.pyx b/spacy/syntax/nn_parser.pyx
index f1a0bc91c..24e5841a5 100644
--- a/spacy/syntax/nn_parser.pyx
+++ b/spacy/syntax/nn_parser.pyx
@@ -483,8 +483,7 @@ cdef class Parser:
         return beams
 
     def update(self, docs_tokvecs, golds, drop=0., sgd=None, losses=None):
-        docs_tokvecs, golds = self._filter_unlabelled(docs_tokvecs, golds)
-        if not golds:
+        if not any(self.moves.has_gold(gold) for gold in golds):
             return None
         if self.cfg.get('beam_width', 1) >= 2 and numpy.random.random() >= 0.5:
             return self.update_beam(docs_tokvecs, golds,
@@ -558,7 +557,8 @@ cdef class Parser:
 
     def update_beam(self, docs_tokvecs, golds, width=None, density=None,
             drop=0., sgd=None, losses=None):
-        docs_tokvecs, golds = self._filter_unlabelled(docs_tokvecs, golds)
+        if not any(self.moves.has_gold(gold) for gold in golds):
+            return None
         if not golds:
             return None
         if width is None:
@@ -611,15 +611,6 @@ cdef class Parser:
             bp_my_tokvecs(d_tokvecs, sgd=sgd)
         return d_tokvecs
 
-    def _filter_unlabelled(self, docs_tokvecs, golds):
-        '''Remove inputs that have no relevant labels before update'''
-        has_golds = [self.moves.has_gold(gold) for gold in golds]
-        docs, tokvecs = docs_tokvecs
-        docs = [docs[i] for i, has_gold in enumerate(has_golds) if has_gold]
-        tokvecs = [tokvecs[i] for i, has_gold in enumerate(has_golds) if has_gold]
-        golds = [golds[i] for i, has_gold in enumerate(has_golds) if has_gold]
-        return (docs, tokvecs), golds
-
     def _init_gold_batch(self, whole_docs, whole_golds):
         """Make a square batch, of length equal to the shortest doc. A long
         doc will get multiple states. Let's say we have a doc of length 2*N,