Manchester City director of football Txiki Begiristain says dominating the English game is key to success in Europe.

Pep Guardiola has lifted the Champions League twice as manager of Barcelona and ended speculation over his future earlier this month by penning a new deal to 2023.

"You can see (the league is more competitive) with the scores and the difficulties for everyone to win games," he told City's YouTube channel.

"Tottenham and Leicester are there, Everton started well and Southampton. You can see the performance of teams that in other years were battling. They are there. It means the gap from the top to the bottom has been reduced. It's difficult.

"It's a very testing league but it has always been like this. We want to be fighting for everything – every title we are playing for – and we want to win.

"We always have the Champions League in mind but we want to keep winning leagues and cups to dominate in this country. If you dominate in this country, something is going to come from Europe."