Pep Guardiola believes Chelsea manager Antonio Conte maybe “the best” around ahead of the likes of Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino.
The pair face each other for the second time on Wednesday evening at Stamford Bridge with the Blues holding a seven-point lead atop of the Premier League table.
Conte won their first meeting last December, leaving the Etihad stadium with a 3-1 win, and the way he’s transformed both Juventus and Italy as well as Chelsea has Guardiola waxing lyrical about his Italian counterpart.
“My opinion about my colleague Conte is that he’s superb,” he said, as reported by BBC Sport.
“He was able to make Italy play beautiful football – Juventus too – in a culture where it’s so defensive.
“He’s an excellent manager, I learn a lot when I see his teams – Juventus, Italy and now. I like to do that because you see what they want to do. Their teams control a lot of aspects.
“Maybe he’s the best.”
Conte joined Chelsea after guiding Italy to a quarter-final berth at Euro 2016.
Prior to taking up the Italian national team job he enjoyed three successful seasons at Juventus, where he won three consecutive league titles, to go with the five championships he won as a player with the Old Lady.
He’s on course to win another league title as manager with eight matches remaining this season and the gap to second-place Tottenham Hotspur standing at seven points.
City, who started the season under Guardiola brightly, are a further four points behind Mauricio Pochettino’s men.
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