Pep Guardiola claims Tottenham are one of his favourite teams.
Guardiola’s Manchester City face Spurs at Wembley on Monday.
City have made an impressive, unbeaten start to their Premier League title defence but they are only two points better off than Mauricio Pochettino’s men heading into the game.
City boss Guardiola said: “We saw the game against Inter Milan in the Champions League and the last game at PSV Eindhoven and they were not worse than their opponents – I’d say they were better.
“They are one of the teams I like to watch the most. I learn when I watch them.
“They have a lot of international players and their base is from the English national team. They’ve a young team, a good keeper and good strikers. They have everything to be there.”
Despite City’s form, the tightness of the competition means the champions could end the latest round of fixtures outside of the top four should results go against them.
Yet even if they claim a key victory over one of their chief rivals, Guardiola would expect the battle to remain close and Spurs to keep on challenging.
He said: “Always it’s tough. It was in my first season here. I didn’t expect any more.
“But nothing is going to change my opinion of my team. I want to focus to win the game and give a good performance, knowing the quality of the Spurs side.
“But it’s not going to finish anything. After this it’s Fulham, Southampton, (Manchester) United and Shakhtar (Donetsk).”
City produced their best performance of the season as they swept aside Shakhtar 3-0 in the Champions League in Ukraine. That win came after a 5-0 thrashing of Burnley in the Premier League last weekend.
Guardiola feels the competition for places in his squad is keeping everyone on top of their game.
He said: “All the players want to play good, be ready, be part of the team. We are lucky to have a squad with huge quality. They try to play good because if it doesn’t happen, others are ready.”
