Irvine left long-serving Swedish centre-back Jonas Olsson, who has played more than 200 games for the Baggies, out of the side which beat Tottenham 1-0 in the Premier League at the weekend.

Olsson's errors had cost his side crucial goals against Everton and Swansea, with Irvine replacing him with new signing Joleon Lescott for the trip to White Hart Lane.

"It wasn't easy telling Jonas what I intended to do," he told the club's official website, ahead of Wednesday night's Capital One Cup third-round tie at home to Hull City.

"I have huge respect for him. He is a top professional and a very, very good player, but he has made a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes which have proved costly in the last couple of games.

"I have a full range of choices for the first time and I had to look a couple of people in the eye and tell them they were not playing. It is never pleasant but it is part of the job.

"And you can be absolutely certain that Jonas will remain a very important member of the squad."

Lescott arrived at the club from Premier league champions Manchester City in June but the win over Spurs was his first match of the season after suffering a knee injury.

"We would have been taking a big risk with Joleon had we put him in before he was ready and I hope the fans understand that," he said.

"I keep trying to explain that we want to put people in the team but they have to be ready.

"We already had a setback with him in the pre-season friendly at Forest but we felt he was ready this week.

"There were no niggles or aches after his work, everything was good and it was also the right opportunity to put him in."