Mikel Arteta has hailed the influence of former team-mate and Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino during their time together at Paris Saint-Germain.

The Arsenal skipper joined the French side on loan from Barcelona when he was a teenager and played alongside Pochettino - an established Argentina international at the time - for a season.

The new Spurs coach takes charge of his first north London derby on Saturday and Arteta believes Pochettino possesses similar qualities to their manager at PSG, Marcelo Bielsa.

"He [Bielsa] transformed him as a player and he made a top player out of him," Arteta told the official matchday programme.

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"He learned a lot and he took a lot of his training methods to his own philosophy now. You can see that the way his teams play are not very far away from Bielsa's style.

"He was the captain of the club and for me, he was like a father. He really looked after me. He taught me about the values and the behaviour that a professional footballer must have.

"He told me about the way a footballer must look after himself and he had a lot of respect for his team-mates. I will always be grateful for what he did for him and I respect him for that."

Arsenal face a crucial block of fixtures before the international break, including a Champions League game in between London derbies against Spurs and Chelsea. Arteta believes the team will take impetus from their encouraging win against Villa Park last week.

"One of our objectives on Saturday is to maintain the momentum from the win at Aston Villa," he said.

"It is vital because this is a different game with a different meaning. You can take a lot of positives if you win and there's a lot of negativity when you don't. We'd better be ready, we're at home and we want to win it."