MANCHESTER -- Pep Guardiola has hailed Antonio Conte as "one of the best coaches in the world" after making a huge impact at Chelsea in his first few months in charge.
Chelsea finished 10th in the Premier League last season but Conte has led the Blues to the top of the table with a run of seven successive victories.
City have the chance to move above Chelsea when the two teams meet at the Etihad on Saturday and Guardiola believes the Italian's side will be one of his biggest rivals for the title.
"Conte is one of the best coaches in the world right now," Guardiola told a news conference. "It is the first time we are going to face each other -- it's good to play against him.
"He made an exceptional job in Turin and in the national job. It doesn't matter if it is Serie A or the national team, you realise his strengths.
"He has started here with maybe not good results, but they have won last seven games, conceding one goal. That says a lot about how good they are.
"They were contenders to win the Premier League from the beginning. Now, maybe more than before. It's a good test for us."
Guardiola has a full squad to choose with the exception of captain Vincent Kompany, who is ruled out with a knee ligament injury.
The Catalan has had a full week to prepare for the match for the first time since the opening fixture of the season and he gave his players two days off after a difficult week that saw them play away to Crystal Palace, Borussia Monchengladbach and Burnley in the space of seven days.
"We don't give a day off to the players when you have a lot of games in a row. That's why they had two days off and we were training for three days to prepare for Chelsea," he said.
"We all like to play football, that's why we're here, but sometimes you have four, five or six months, playing, playing, playing, so not playing one week is good, not only for the players, the staff to see their families."
Guardiola intends to go on the attack against Chelsea but says his side must be switched on to the threat of Diego Costa, Pedro and Eden Hazard.
"We will be cautious when they have the ball, when we have the ball we will attack as much as possible," he said.
"They are so good when they arrive in the box, they score goals. They don't need to create too many chances to score goals. They are solid.
"But we are going to play with the quality players we have, attacking the best way as possible. All the guys are good on the counter-attack."