Alan Pardew says 'Cab four' will still be in contention to play for West Brom

Jonny Evans, Jake Livermore, Gareth Barry and Boaz Myhill have been named as the players involved in the internal investigation that was opened today.

If follows an incident which is believed to have taken place hours after Pardew's 12pm curfew in the early hours of Thursday morning.

But Pardew, who also had his wallet and phone stolen on a separate night in Barcelona, will not necessarily leave them out of the team for the FA Cup fifth round clash.

Evans and Barry are expected to start, Myhill is due to be on the bench, and Livermore is due to sit out with a hamstring injury.

“They are available for selection, because the investigation is ongoing,” he said. “I’m trying to get a team out there that can win a game.

“That’s more important than anything at the moment. I’ll play my strongest team to try and achieve that.”

Albion's head coach was disappointed his players broke a curfew, but he took some responsibility for the incident.

“You can't get away from that if you're the manager of a football club," he said. “I think like anything, if something happens at your football club and you're making the calls in terms of where we should be and where we shouldn't be.

“In hindsight, after the incident, would I have gone? No. But before, if I knew there was not going to be an incident, would have I gone? Yes I would.

“We needed to go away and get ourselves right for the run-in.

“I have done that many times to good effect. This time it hasn't worked out.

“Burnley are away, Everton are away, Liverpool are away in Dubai.

“We tried to get somewhere where there was a scenario in a city where we could get good training and come together and unfortunately this incident has hampered that."

Pardew refused to divulge whether a taxi was involved, and plans to wait until the internal investigation is over.

“We'll have to wait and see how spectacular that is in terms of the investigation," he said. “But the facts in terms of the curfew for me, is hard.

“It was 12 'o'clock because it was a Champions' League night and I think they kicked off at 9pm.

“So it was a sort of 'go into the city, enjoy a restaurant and watch the game'.

“I didn't want anybody to break a curfew. I don't usually set too many curfews and I've had many many trips as you can imagine – mid-season, pre-season, end of season with football teams.

“So I do know how to handle players in terms of their conduct.

“I've never had an incident before, so yeah, I'm a bit disappointed."