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Pep Guardiola has identified Chelsea as the biggest threat to Manchester City in the title race and thought as much before the season even started.

The City boss goes head-to-head with Antonio Conte on Saturday in an early title clash and admires the Italian greatly.

Guardiola considers the Italian’s Premier League leaders as the team to beat, reports the Manchester Evening News.

The Blues have won seven straight, but their fine run comes as no surprise, with the Catalan predicting Chelsea would be one of the title favourites - despite ending last season in a lowly 10th place and 31 points behind champions Leicester.

(Image: REUTERS)

Despite Jose Mourinho taking over at Manchester United and the threats of Arsene Wenger and Mauricio Pochettino at Arsenal and Tottenham respectively - Chelsea were the team Guardiola singled out.

His biographer Marti Perarnau writes in his book Pep Guardiola: The Evolution how the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach acknowledged a similarity between himself and Conte.

“I remember asking him in 2015 to name two coaches with the greatest potential and, without a second’s hesitation, he said, ‘Tuchel and Conte,’” writes Perarnau.

(Image: Darren Walsh)

“He sees a lot of himself in Conte: his passion, his aggression, work ethic and determination to have the ball as much as possible, the intensity of his game and his competitive drive.

“‘Conte plays positional football too. It’s very different from my own, but it’s a game of position and he does it very, very well.’”

Saturday’s lunchtime kick off at the Etihad will say much of each side’s title credentials, with Guardiola describing Chelsea as ‘amazing’ in recent days.

Perarnau adds: “In private, Pep’s gone as far as identifying Chelsea as one of the favourites to win the league this year.

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“The team has a superb coach, excellent players, and a preferential calendar without any European competition and therefore lots and lots of time to concentrate on training and preparation for each game.

“He may well be proven wrong, but before the league kicked off Pep certainly saw Conte as one of his biggest threats.”

Guardiola at least has a full week to prepare for Chelsea, which is the start of a daunting fixture list in December.

As well as the Londoners, City will also face title rivals Arsenal and Liverpool, along with reigning champions Leicester.

City are currently a point behind Chelsea - but after securing qualification to the knockout stages in the Champions League they can now focus on their title challenge until February.