Tottenham head coach Mauricio Pochettino says he will not know whether his side can challenge Manchester City this season until the European transfer window closes.

Spurs are fancied to provide more of a challenge to City, whom they visit in Saturday's late kick-off, and Liverpool, but uncertainty surrounds several of their key players.

There is a huge question mark over the future of Christian Eriksen, whom Spurs are willing to sell before the September 2 deadline, while Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen are also in the final year of their contracts and Danny Rose was told he could leave earlier in the summer.

He went on: "For me the best thing to see who is the best is to go there, brave managers, be like Anthony Joshua and create a ring and fight.

"I am so brave on the touchline because I know that is never going to happen, so I shout and everything. That is the point – I love to compare my team with another team. Maybe Tottenham was the last team to beat Manchester City, for sure."

So, who would win in the ring?

"I don't know," Pochettino added. "You can be surprised. People who are so relaxed... He is strong. You don't know. That is a joke."