Maurizio
Sarri has reiterated his belief that Manchester City are the best team in
Europe ahead of Chelsea's trip to the Etihad Stadium, live on
Sky
Sports.
Pep Guardiola's side only returned to the top of the Premier League table on
Wednesday, following their win at Everton, after trailing Liverpool for
several weeks.
Chelsea were the first side to beat City in the league this season when they
beat the champions 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in December.
However, Sarri's admiration of Guardiola's team has not dimmed, and he said:
"At the moment, in my opinion, Manchester City is the best team in Europe.
"Guardiola is in the third season in the Premier League. We have to try to
reduce the gap."
Chelsea go into the game at the Etihad knowing that, if they win, they will
be nine points behind City, with a game in hand.
Guardiola has previously said he believes Sarri's side are capable of
winning the title, but the Italian is not so sure.
"At the moment, I don't think so," said Sarri. "We will be able to fight for
the top four in this season. No more, I think.
"We can win something, of course, but in the Premier League there is a fight
between Liverpool and Manchester City."
Chelsea's victory over City in December came courtesy of a goal from N'Golo
Kante on the stroke of half-time, and a late David Luiz header.
However, Chelsea were under considerable pressure from City in the first
period before controlling the second, and Sarri admits his side were
fortunate to win the game.
"I think we were lucky because we scored in a very difficult moment of the
match," said Sarri. "Maybe we deserved to win in the second half, but we
were lucky in the first half.
"In that match we defended very well, because they had only three goal
opportunities. It's not easy against Manchester City to give them only three
opportunities.
"We need to defend very well and to be very fast when we recover the ball.
They are able to press really very well. If we do it, I think we can find
spaces. But it's very difficult."
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