Manchester City’s new Arab owners have sent shock waves through the football world since taking over the club a month ago, but Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, has warned them that they may be underestimating the size of their mission to build a team capable of winning the Barclays Premier League.

Within hours of agreeing a deal to buy City, the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment (ADUG) sanctioned a British-record transfer deal to sign Robinho from Real Madrid for £34.2 million and one official involved in the takeover suggested that players such as Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres could figure alongside Cristiano Ronaldo on an ambitious shopping list.

ADUG has distanced itself from those claims, but Benítez, who takes his team to the City of Manchester Stadium tomorrow, believes that breaking into the elite may be harder than City’s new owners realise.

“I do not know when they can become genuine title contenders,” the Spaniard said, aware that it has taken four years to turn his team into challengers. “They are a good team with good players and a good manager [Mark Hughes], so they can be top of the table, but there are other teams that have spent big money, like Aston Villa. But you must realise how hard the Premier League is to win. Every year you hear about possible challenges from Aston Villa, Newcastle, West Ham. Now it is City. We shall see.

“It’s not easy to improve a squad. Chelsea were spending money for years before they could win the title. You also have to take into consideration the level of the other teams. Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal have all been spending big money on players for a long time.”

Chelsea supporters would point out that their club won the title in 2005, less than two years after Roman Abramovich bought the club, but the league appears even more competitive now. Where Chelsea were building on firm foundations, City finished a distant ninth in the league last season.

Hughes shares Benítez’s view of the size of his task, but he is grateful that a more realistic outlook seems to have taken hold since Khaldoon al-Mubarak was named as chairman and Sulaiman al-Fahim, whose comments about potential transfer targets caused such consternation, was sidelined.

“It’s a big, big ask for us [to finish in the top four],” Hughes said. “There are good sides who reside there at the moment. There were statements made when the takeover first came to light and the people who made those statements are obviously no longer here. It’s assured and calm and more realistic now.

“This match gives us an opportunity to make a statement, but we will need to play exceptionally well because Liverpool are at the top of their form at the moment. We are a young team with a lot of guys who are good players but don’t have a great deal of experience in the Premier League, so maybe some of them haven’t quite understood the intensity of it yet.”

Hughes is eager to sign players with Premier League experience when the January transfer window opens, rather than simply plundering the biggest names, but Benítez has told City to forget the idea of trying to sign his captain. “Gerrard is playing well and if we are improving he will be very, very happy here,” Benítez said.

“The key is that he wants to stay here. That is the most important thing. It is not a question of money.”