Pep Guardiola in veiled swipe at Manchester United by praising Spurs and Chelsea for 'wanting to play football'

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Pep Guardiola has taken a veiled swipe at Manchester United after praising Chelsea and Tottenham as the teams in the Premier League who “want to play football”.

Following City’s Manchester derby win last weekend and the 4-0 victory at Swansea on Wednesday, City sit 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League table ahead of this Saturday’s visit of Tottenham Hotspur.

Not only did the Manchester derby take centre stage last Sunday, it erupted immediately afterwards in the Old Trafford tunnel when the two sets of players and coaches clashed, leaving City assistant manager Mikel Arteta with a cut near his right eye and United boss Jose Mourinho drenched in milk.

Both Guardiola and Mourinho maintained a calm and respectful approach when talking about each other in the media – even if tempers boiled over away from the cameras – but Guardiola could not help himself in taking a swipe at United by praising Spurs and Chelsea for the way they are playing this season, even though United remain ahead of them in the table.

“I think Tottenham are with Chelsea as the best team in wanting to play football,” Guardiola said.

“They don't expect their opponents [to force the play], they want to make their own game. It is another amazing test for us after games every three days.”

Spurs have seen their title challenge fade somewhat this season after a run of just one win in six Premier League matches through October, November and December, but they look to have overcome that blip thanks to comfortable victories over Stoke City and Brighton and Hove Albion. Having finished runners-up to City last season, Spurs had hoped to go one step further this time around, and a win this weekend would at least help pull City closer to the chasing pack after their unbeaten start to the season.

But one of Guardiola’s main concerns is the number of games that are coming up over the festive period and how he has to manage his players, with one eye already on the next fixture even though the size of the threat that Spurs will pose means that Guardiola cannot afford to rest players this Saturday.

“After [Tottenham] we have Leicester in the Carabao Cup and there is not too much time for recovery but we are ready to face them and keep that level that we show in the last period,” Guardiola added.