Mauricio Pochettino Claims it's 'Unfair' to Compare Spurs to Man City Due to Budget Differences

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino says it is ‘completely unfair’ to draw any comparisons between his side and big-spending opponents Manchester City.

Spurs travel to the Etihad on Saturday evening looking to spoil the Citizen’s winning run, and will want to inflict a first league defeat of the season on Pep Guardiola’s men.

Pochettino’s side are 18 points behind City, but the Argentine manager believes that any comparisons made are completely unwarranted because of the money that the Manchester club has spent over the past years.

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Speaking at a press conference on Friday evening, Pochettino was questioned on the gap between Spurs and Man City to which he replied, via ESPN: "Of course it’s a massive improvement by Manchester City — they won [a] few Premier Leagues and they keep improving and improving and investing and investing, but Tottenham is in a complete different way today.”

The Spurs boss then went onto say: "But I think today it’s important to recognise the effort that the club is making: trying to be competitive, trying to play Champions League, trying to fight with the big sides like City, [Manchester] United that, in the end, don’t care what they spend if they can win.

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For us, it’s completely different and I think it’s not fair to compare the club [to them]. I don’t put myself as a victim. It’s only to say this is what the club is doing. And maybe in a few years is the moment say, ‘Come on, the club now need to win and need to compete, and with the same tools as another big club."

Pochettino will certainly be hoping his Spurs side have the tools to stop a rampant Manchester City on Saturday evening. Meanwhile, City will be confident that they can extend their run of 15 straight league wins - an English top-flight record.