Mauricio Pochettino has huge admiration for Arsene Wenger.

Despite Wenger being his “enemy”, just by virtue of being the Arsenal manager, the Tottenham boss has a lot of respect for him.

Pochettino believes that Wenger is one of the great managers who deserves more respect for his longevity in the game.

“In football history he’s one of the great managers,” said Pochettino, as reported by the Daily Mail.

“He deserves full credit. He will always be a special manager. To stay for 20 years, and near the top, is not easy. If you do it for five years you must be very good and very, very good if you do it for 10 years but when you talk about 20 years it’s amazing.

“It is a reason to admire him. Everyone who talks about him needs to show respect. Some days you’re good, some days not so good, but always respect.”

The Spurs manager went on to reveal that he looked up to Wenger and former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson when he was starting out. He also said he’d like to emulate them one day.

“It is massive praise for me if you are comparing us,” he said.

“Wenger and Ferguson were always managers I looked up to for the way they built up their clubs. That’s why my respect and admiration is high. Wenger was an innovator.

“He is my enemy because he is the Arsenal manager but he is my colleague, too. When you see what he has done at Arsenal and as a manager, I would like to be like him one day.”

Wenger has been an innovator of the English game and has won plenty of trophies along the way.

Pochettino is a fine coach not far off success, but the lack of trophies in his career so far will be held against him. Still, he’s done very good work at Spurs.

He’s turned them into a disciplined and consistent team who could conceivably challenge for major honours soon. That’s no small feat, given how Spurs used to look before he took over.

He has a handy record in North London derbies, too. Arsene Wenger has only beaten him once in the League Cup back in 2015.

Hopefully, that will change on Saturday afternoon.