Following Mauricio Pochettino's press conference, Alison Bender and Dan Kilpatrick reflect on who will be returning to the line up for Spurs when they face Arsenal. (2:52)

LONDON -- Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino wants to match the longevity and success of Saturday's opponent Arsene Wenger but says he will never compromise on having an English core in an attempt to do so.

This is Wenger's 21st season at Arsenal and his first success -- a Premier League and FA Cup Double in 1998 -- was built on a base of English players including David Seaman, Tony Adams, Martin Keown and Ray Parlour.

But Wenger's later teams, including the 2003-04 "Invincibles" team, had a distinctly foreign feel, and no one has fielded more Premier League XIs without an English player than the 68-year-old.

Speaking ahead of Wenger's 43rd North London derby in the Premier League, Pochettino described him as "my enemy" and "my colleague" and added at a news conference: "What he is doing at Arsenal and as a manager, I would like to be like him one day: 20 years at Tottenham!

"To stay in a club for five years, it is because you are a good manager, 10 years it is because you must be very good. For more than 20 years, it is because you are special. I admire him a lot, he is a very special manager."

Wenger's last attempt to build a team around a British core -- tying Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey, Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain and Carl Jenkinson to long-term contracts in 2012 -- was perhaps not the success he would have hoped for, but in the same period Pochettino has coached 11 England debutants at Southampton or Tottenham. Six Spurs players were named in the latest England squad, with Arsenal without a single representative.

Harry Kane is one of a number of English players in Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham side. Getty Images

Pochettino said comparisons with Wenger were "massive praise for me" but, asked if his Tottenham teams would always have an English core, he said: "Yes. That is why we are working this way. We believe in English talent.

"The under-17s, U19s and U21s make me believe even more in English talent and everyone realises, 'Oh we have good talent in our boys.' It's important to see. Of course, we can build a very good core of English players with our identity, coming through our academy, and players coming outside of England and English players coming from different clubs. It's an exciting challenge for us and exciting philosophy for us to build."

To match Wenger's longevity, Pochettino knows that Tottenham will need to keep producing players like Harry Kane and Harry Winks and he says he is already blooding the next generation of hopefuls.

"On Thursday, there were eight 16-year-olds training with the first team," Pochettino, who did not want to name the teenagers, said.

"Five years ago when we arrived [at Southampton], 17- or 18-year-olds were kids and training with the first team was crazy. Now, [we have] eight 16-year-olds training with the first team. That is fantastic. They are not close to the first team but it is a fantastic experience for them.

"We have the talent, we need time to be focused and help them achieve the level we want. When you see the academy, we have a lot of talent -- we need time and patience to help them achieve."