Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp does not believe Manchester City are a better side than his own despite seeing the Blues pip Spurs in the race for Champions League football by beating them 1-0 at Eastlands on Tuesday night.
City's top-four finish in the Barclays Premier League and a place in Europe's elite club competition was secured thanks to Peter Crouch's 30th-minute own goal. But as far as Redknapp is concerned, Roberto Mancini's current group of players are in no way superior to what he is working with at White Hart Lane.
He said: "They have an owner who can spend anything he wants and they could go out and buy another four or five world-class players in the summer and try to win the Champions League. It won't be beyond them. They have good players already but I wouldn't say they are any better than us to be truthful."
Tottenham were without Gareth Bale, whose disrupted season was ended on Saturday when he sustained ankle ligament damage in the 1-1 draw with Blackpool.
"If Bale hadn't got injured, I think we would have been very close," Redknapp added. "There is very little in it."
Luka Modric wasted a glorious chance before Crouch put the ball into his own net and City goalkeeper Joe Hart produced a superb save to deny Steven Pienaar immediately after the interval.
Spurs have now won only one of their last 10 league matches and are down to sixth in the table in a disappointing end to a season which has included so many highs but drifted away alarmingly in the last few weeks.
Redknapp added: "The biggest problems in this run where we have fallen out of the top four are that we lost Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart has suddenly become a bit jaded due to the World Cup and not having a pre-season,
"When they were in top form we were killing teams off as well as playing good football. Not too many teams play better than we do. That means a lot to me. I enjoy watching us play. I would rather that than us play awful football and keep lumping the ball.
"I want to enjoy the last few years I have got in football."
