Nicolas Otamendi set for Manchester City chance in Vincent Kompany’s absence

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany will miss Saturday’s Premier League clash with West Ham but star striker Sergio Aguero is fit.

But Pellegrini insists Kompany’s latest calf problem is not serious. Continued to be injured are Pablo Zabaleta, Gaël Clichy, Fabian Delph and Samir Nasir has a kick after the last game and he is not 100% fit for tomorrow.

“It is important for Nicolas Otamendi to have his opportunity to demonstrate why he is here and Martin Demichelis to return to his performance of last season”, City manager Manuel Pellegrini said on Friday.

“It’s a calf injury for Kompany – he won’t be involved on Tuesday against Sunderland but we’ll see if he can face Tottenham”.

“I think it is important to carry on playing with the same names but I always say we have a squad”.

“It’s not his first move, he played for Lille, Saint-Etienne, Marseille – Marseille is an extremely big club, with big pressure, big responsibility”.

“Otamendi had a really good season with Valencia last season”, he added.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side conceded twice in the final 20 minutes to lose 2-1 at home to the Italian giants in their opening Champions League outing. Sergio [Agüero] recovers very well.

“He is 100 per cent and will play without any problems”, Pellegrini said.

As for their previously poor starts to Champions League campaigns, Kompany was quick to state that although they were defeated, they still could take plenty of encouraging points from the loss itself with fifteen points left to play for in the Group of Death. “It is not easy to win games against Arsenal and Liverpool without conceding”.

Premier League leaders City are going in search of their sixth win from six in the top flight so far this term.

“I am very happy [with him] because same as Raheem Sterling, we didn’t have players with their characteristics so they give another option to our squad”.

“It was not down to luck that they won those games”.