NOISY v Wenger goes into his 51st derby & says his team passion & desire

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Pochettino insisted: “Everyone who talks about him needs to show respect.”

Ahead of their eighth derby meeting, Pochettino said: “Is he under-rated? Not by me. In football history he’s one of the great managers, on the same level as Sir Alex Ferguson, and he will always be a special manager.

“To stay over 20 years and always be near the top is not easy. To keep motivation more than three years is difficult enough.

“To do it for five years you must be very good, to do it for 20 years is amazing.

“Everyone who talks about him needs to show respect.

“It’s an honour for me to be compared with him and now it’s a challenge for me to stay here five or 10 years.

“Wenger was an innovator, ahead of everyone, like Ferguson. They were ahead of everyone. That’s why respect and admiration is high.”

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ARSENE WENGER insists threats of being “executed” would not get Arsenal’s current generation any more fired up for the North London derby.

Wenger was half-joking, of course, but was keen to reply to the accusation that his players do not have as much desire as teams of the past.

Arsenal legend Lee Dixon recalled, in yesterday’s Mirror, that before his first game with Tottenham his team-mates pinned him up against a wall in the dressing room and told him they dare not lose.

Wenger has taken charge of 50 North London derbies – winning 22, drawing 20 and losing just eight – and maintains his players share his passion, but adds that quality is just as important. “Lee Dixon is a passionate guy, so, in his response, he is passionate as well,” said Wenger.

“If that was the only way to feel football games, you would say to people, ‘If you don’t win the game, you are killed after it. You are executed.’

“That shows you that putting people up against the wall is not the only way. That’s why it’s so difficult to win a game.

“It’s a mixture between urgency and confidence, relaxed and tense, and that is different for every individual. Different for every team as well. You have to adapt your speech to the mental state of the team and the individual.

“They are the kind of remarks I’ve had for 20 years.

“I remember many people questioned me in 2002 and 2003 if (Robert) Pires will be

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