Leeds United's Marcelo Bielsa says champions Manchester City are more than the sum of their parts - sound familiar?

If that sounds like a bit of a criticism, it is certainly not. Bielsa called them "the best amongst the best".

And everything Bielsa said about City outperforming their rivals for the title applies equally to his Leeds United team finishing above some of the clubs they will in this Premier League season.

There is huge mutual admiration between Bielsa and Guardiola, and it does City's players and their manager huge credit to suggest they have comfortably outperformed other clubs with equally good squads.

"The team is more than its individual qualities, which are very high," said Bielsa when asked to comment on the Manchester club's third Premier League title in four seasons.

He argued: "It's a team that's recognisable and doesn't have the best players in the league. It's one of the teams that has some of the best players in the league and this increases the value of what they've achieved because there are other teams with equal conditions to City to win the Premier League.

"They were the best among the best."

City were unable to beat Leeds this season, held to a 1-1 draw at Elland Road in October and beaten at Eastlands in April, despite the Whites having Liam Cooper sent off in the first half. Bielsa, though, was typically modest about that.

"We value the performance of the team in those two games but it's also fair to say that in the game we won, the result shouldn't have been that and in the game we drew against them it would have been more fair if City had won," said the Argentinian.

"The result is not the only element to evaluate. But having said that, to have managed to triumph in a game so difficult as the last one against them, and having been able to adapt to the superiority of City in the first game, they were very important for Leeds United."

With three games to play, Leeds are 10th in their first season back in the Premier League since 2003-04.

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