Tottenham: Conte admits Manchester City clash could be tough for his side

Antonio Conte has hailed Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola as the 'best coach in the world,' while admitting Tottenham could find it 'very tough' against the Premier League champions this weekend.

Tottenham are coming off three straight league defeats and travel to the Etihad on Saturday to play a City team who have dropped points in just one of their last 15 games.

Conte has been vocal about Tottenham's struggles during the January transfer window saying it made his squad worse and has also talked down their chances of finishing in the top-four this season.

The Italian in his interview with beIN Sports ahead of Saturday's clash, has admitted there is a large gap between his side and the current league leaders.

He said: 'For sure it will be a tough game for us - but at the same time we want to try to play and we want to try to use this game also to have a step for improvement.

'In this game you understand also the distance, the gap that you have with the other - but you want to play without fear - also because I repeat we are in a moment that we have to go through this situation if we want to have another step and the game against City we know it could be very tough.'

He added: 'We know that probably they will have the possession of seventy, seventy-five minutes during the game, but we want to try to change something and also to show that we can fight.'

Tottenham are one of just two sides to beat City in the league - on the first day of the season when Nuno Espirito Santo was in charge.

City have enjoyed another fantastic season and Conte has hailed Guardiola as the best in the world.

He said: 'I think that we are talking about the best coach in the world because he shows it in many teams, many different situations, that it is good to build something important and if the club supports him because when you stay in Barcelona and Bayern Munich and then Manchester City, these clubs wanted to invest in him and he repaid this trust.

'I repeat when you see a team of Pep Guardiola you can see an idea of football and you understand that there is a lot of work into the team and this work is his idea and for this reason it’s for me in this moment is the best coach in the world.

'Manchester City in my opinion is the favourite to win the league this season and also is one of the favourites for the Champions League because we are talking about a team who are very very strong in every aspect – the squad and I don’t see weakness in this team.'

Defeats to Chelsea, Southampton and Wolves have left Spurs 8th in the standings - seven points off the Champions League spots and a massive 27 points off their opponents on Saturday.

Last month, Spurs brought in only Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur, while Tanguy Ndombele, Bryan Gil, Dele Alli and Giovani Lo Celso all left.

‘Four players left in January. Four important players for Tottenham, two have arrived. So even numerically instead of reinforcing, you may have, on paper, weakened,’ Conte said.

The Italian also stated that his side only have a 'one per cent' chance of finishing in the top four this season.