Pardew, who took over at SE7 from Les Reed on Christmas Eve, is also up against his former club, after he was sacked by new chairman Eggert Magnusson in December.
As well as these two men taking on their former clubs, the game is also a relegation six-pointer, with the loser of the game seemingly close to next season in the Championship.
But Pardew has said "I don't want to talk about the West Ham game too much at the moment."
"I would say that Alan Curbishley and myself had a conversation on Friday morning because it is quite a unique position, and I think the media profile of the game is going to be very high.
"At the end of the day we have to protect our individual players and protect ourselves.
"We had a nice chat. We both know it's an important game and we're just going to try and make sure we manage it to give the players the best platform for them to play, rather than get caught up in all the politics and media circus that will no doubt go on around the game unfortunately."