Claudio Yacob set to start for West Brom after Gareth Barry picks up minor thigh injury

The Argentinian midfielder is expected to start his first league game since the opening day of the season this weekend when the Baggies travel to bottom club Swansea.

Yacob came off the bench half an hour into Pardew’s first game in charge for the injured Gareth Barry.

Barry had a scan on his injury today and was found to have suffered a slight pull of his thigh muscle.

Although he has not been ruled out of Saturday’s trip to South Wales, the veteran midfielder is unlikely to be risked at the start of an eight-day period with three games.

And Pardew has been convinced that Yacob is capable of stepping up to the plate after his display against Crystal Palace.

“Claudio was terrific when he came on and second half I was really impressed by his performance,” he said. “The back four with Claudio were great in terms of our transition and momentum in the game.”

Yacob, who made his 150th Premier League appearance for the Baggies on Saturday, helped the team secure their first clean sheet for 11 games.

Barry was forced off after 30 minutes, and his departure coincided with Palace’s best spell of the game, but Pardew didn’t believe it was the reason Albion briefly lost control.

“I didn’t think that was really the problem,” he said. “Sometimes when you haven’t won a game for a while just five minutes [off it] can make you feel like it’s going wrong again and therefore you retreat. It’s natural, and I think that’s what we did.”

Pardew already has several key players injured, and was unable to pick Matt Phillips, Chris Brunt, James Morrison, Nacer Chadli, or Craig Dawson for his first game in charge.

“Hopefully we are going to see Phillips and Brunty back (for Swansea),” said Albion’s boss.

“It would be nice for Brunty to be back, in terms of being just around the team, because his delivery from set plays is one of the main reasons West Brom had a great record from scoring from those, and we were disappointing from set plays.”

Morrison, Chadli, and Dawson are not expected to return until nearer Christmas.