Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola dubbed Tottenham as ‘the Harry Kane team’ last season, a comment that didn’t go down too well with Pochettino or fans.
The label was disrespectful to the other high-performing Spurs players, and disregarded what a strong unit they are together.
Despite Mo Salah scoring more goals for Liverpool, they were not called ‘the Mo Salah team’, just as City are not labelled ‘the Kevin de Bruyne team’.
Guardiola has since retracted his comments, and still assures that Tottenham are one of his favourite teams to watch.
He also had extremely high praise for manager Mauricio Pochettino, stating he is no longer a prospect or manager for the future, but one of the best coaches in the world right now.
Tottenham and Manchester City will clash at Wembley this evening, as City look to keep up with Liverpool, and Spurs look to leapfrog both the Manchester club and rivals Arsenal.
Guardiola told The Telegraph: “They show me how wrong I was. I think he is already a top coach, not the next [generation of coaches]. For many years, he is training at a high level.
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“He did an incredible job at Espanyol and Southampton and especially here at Tottenham. I have a lot of respect for the job he has done in his career so he is already a reality as a manager, no doubt.
“He has been linked many times with Real Madrid. He can answer that question but I don’t know what happens. What I think is Mr Levy is not an easy guy to negotiate with.
“In White Hart Lane it was completely different from Wembley. Tottenham feel more comfortable at home.
“That is going to happen in your stadium. We are more comfortable at the Etihad Stadium. But when I analysed this game, I realised this is the Premier League. I felt, ‘wow’.
“People said in that period, ‘City are going to win the Premier League’ and in that game I realised, when I saw how physical they are, how good they are, how [they play] high press, how many good things they do – this is a team.”
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