Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham is bigger than Manchester City

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Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham is bigger than Manchester City

Pep Guardiola arrived at Manchester City last summer as the world's top manager, having won 21 trophies at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but has endured a bumpy ride in his first six months.

City's 4-0 loss at Everton last weekend was Guardiola's heaviest league defeat in management and left them 10 points off leaders Chelsea and outside the top four.

But Tottenham boss Pochettino has warned City will bounce back from their recent slump.

"It means nothing for City to lose to Everton," Pochettino said. "It does not change my admiration or my thoughts about him. Sometimes you can win, you can lose. That is the game.

"He needs time. He's in a position that is still that they can win titles. And he only has to wait.

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Pep Guardiola's Man City has suffered a slump in form and are outside the top four

"He doesn't need to show his quality, his real quality as a coach and how he manages the team. He's shown enough at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

"Sometimes it's about managing expectations. You cannot win titles after a few months. You need to wait until the end. And I'm sure Guardiola will fight with Manchester City at the end for big things."

Pochettino beat Guardiola's Barcelona during the Argentine's debut campaign at Espanyol in 2009. But he is yet to win a trophy after eight years in management, while Guardiola went on to claim six league titles in Spain and Germany plus the Champions League twice.

Pochettino believes a competitive Premier League has levelled things out for the two bosses and he now has a side capable of taking on Europe's elite.

Reflecting back on his time in Spain, the 44-year-old said: "We are talking about Barcelona, one of the best teams in the world, alongside Real Madrid. The gap was massive.

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Guardiola is a huge admirer of Antonio Conte's style of football at Chelsea

"Now at Tottenham I don't know. Historically Tottenham is bigger than Manchester City. With the fans, it's bigger at Tottenham.

"It's true that Manchester City has a different philosophy, not a different level because this season is not complete, but they have a different way to Tottenham.

"It's too difficult to measure if there is a gap or not. Tottenham is completely different to Manchester City. With Espanyol and Barcelona you could measure the gap. But here it is too difficult to measure the gap. We are in a completely different world."

Second-placed Spurs could open up a six-point gap on City with a win at the Etihad this afternoon but Pochettino has talked down hype of a first title at White Hart Lane since 1961.

"We can't look in advance of the (current) time. The squad is very young, I'm very young still," Pochettino said.

"I am here to try to help the club achieve big things. We have unbelievable players, an unbelievable squad. They need time and patience. It's true that our objective is to win titles and to bring the club to a level it deserves."

City's first defeat of the season came at White Hart Lane in early October and Guardiola makes no secret he is a huge admirer of Pochettino and likens the way Spurs play to Antonio Conte's high-octane style at Chelsea.

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"How good are Tottenham? Brilliant," said Guardiola. "As a fan of football, I love to see them.

"It is Pochettino's third season there and they are playing how he wants. It is a really good team, strong physically, good build-up, good quality between the lines with Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli.

"They have physical and technical full-backs with Danny Rose and Kyle Walker. It is a real good team. They play attractive football.

"Pochettino's positional game is quite similar to Chelsea but they have some different movements. They move a little bit more sometimes – [Moussa] Dembele goes left. All of them know exactly where the players are and the positional game is the most difficult thing. When the ball is going to the left, the people on the right stay there and then the ball is arriving there.

"To create that you need quality in the players and time to understand that and to see where the spaces are and of course the quality to move in the spaces. And they are able to run – they make runs in behind and on the counter-attack.

"They can use long balls with Kane. They are strong enough physically but they also have the quality. The three at the back and the four at the back they use the perfect movements in the build-up with the goalkeeper and after Dembele has the quality in holding midfield, one against one and they attack. Alli moves between the lines and they arrive at the right tempo.

"They have been a good team for two or three years."

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