MANCHESTER, England -- Pep Guardiola has said Tottenham have proved they are more than a "Harry Kane team" after his comments upset Maurcio Pochettino last season.
The Spurs boss accused Guardiola of being "disrespectful" last October when he referred to Tottenham as "the Harry Kane team" although the Catalan later insisted his comments were misinterpreted.
A win for Tottenham on Monday would see them leapfrog City in the Premier League table and while Kane remains their biggest goal threat, with seven already this season, Guardiola knows they are from a one-man team.
Erik Lamela is in good form with five goals this season while Lucas Moura has four, including a double in a 3-0 win at Manchester United.
As well as Kane last season, Son Heung-Min, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli all hit double figures.
"They show me how wrong I was," Guardiola told a news conference.
The City boss was also complimentary towards Pochettino, who has been linked with the Real Madrid job in recent weeks. Coach Julen Lopetegui is under huge pressure at the Bernabeu, with Pochettino reportedly on the list of potential replacements.
"I think he is already a top coach," Guardiola added. "For many years, he is training at a high level. He did an incredible job at Espanyol and Southampton and especially here at Tottenham.
"I have a lot of respect of the job he has done in his career so he is already a reality as a manager, no doubt. He has been linked many times with Real Madrid. He can answer that question but I don't know what happens. What I think is [Spurs chairman] Mr. Levy is not an easy guy to negotiate with."
City started the weekend top of the table, but a defeat to fifth-placed Tottenham at Wembley would see them drop out of the top four.
With the top sides dropping so few points, Guardiola believes that games against the other title contenders have taken on added importance this season.
Other than Manchester United, who have made a difficult start, only Spurs have been beaten by a team outside last season's top six while leaders Liverpool have only dropped to City and Chelsea.
"When you play against the contenders it's almost six points, isn't it?" Guardiola said. "These are important.
"I don't know what's happened in the past but it's true that the strong teams are making a lot of points, they are not dropping points easily. That's why maybe the games against the contenders are becoming so important.
"We've started with three games away against them. That's why it is so important to take those points. But nothing is going to change. Southampton is then next at home -- the same points than against Tottenham. When you win [the other team] doesn't win."
City took 24 from a possible 30 points against their top six rivals last season with defeats to Liverpool and United their only failures.
Despite Riyad Mahrez's late penalty miss, the 0-0 draw at Anfield earlier this month means they have an early improvement on last season's record-breaking results but need to win at Spurs again to keep that run going.
"The first year we dropped a lot of points against contenders," Guardiola added. "Except Anfield and United at home, we won everything in the second season.
"The reality is what we did last year you have to be focused on everyone. We had 100 points because we were focused on all the games."