The Blues thrashed the Hammers 5-0 that night with one of the best displays of the season and the Argentina defender believes there is no reason why there can’t be an equally good display on Wednesday evening – though he is expecting the hosts to perform better than they did, too.
“I think that, regardless of the scoreline on our last visit, the important thing is to keep growing as a team,” said Otamendi.
“We need to try to work well in every area, to be in good shape and correct the errors from previous games. Hopefully we’ll have a good game and we’ll win it but I expect West Ham to play better than they did.”
Otamendi admits the City defence has been under a lot of scrutiny this season, but that chances need to be taken when presented at the other end of the pitch, too.
There have been very few games where the Blues haven’t started the better team this campaign, yet missed opportunities have cost the team dearly on several occasions.
“I think that at given moments we create plenty of chances,” he said. “Sometimes we score them all, and sometimes we just score one. We need more patience in front of goal and we should try to perform as we did away at West Ham in our first meeting.
“We create a lot of chances but we lack effectiveness sometimes and, as I said, we need more patience in front of goal and we need to keep calm.
“In defence, we are also facing a stage where if the rival arrives twice to our goal they score both times, and it’s always difficult when you make a big effort and you come away without the victory.
“As a defender, there’s always room for improvement and we hope to make things better each game.”
