Ange made Mikel Arteta swoon long before Tottenham as Arsenal boss reveals glowing intel from inside man

Impressed Mikel Arteta has revealed a close ally clued him up on the brilliance of Ange Postecoglou long before he became the Tottenham boss.

The Arsenal manager will stand in the dugout across the Australian who is basking in the glow of Spurs' best start to a season in 57 years as the both sides remain undefeated heading into Sunday's mouthwatering North London Derby. Arteta admits he is a major admirer of the former Celtic boss and says he was clued in on Angeball long before the 57-year-old got his Tottenham rejuvenation project up and running.

Arteta, speaking ahead of the big one, stated: "I really like him. I had players and I know players who had him and they always speak really, really highly of him. Obviously that is not a coincidence. You can tell straight away that he is fitting in right away. That is the beauty of this league we have top, top managers, top competition and every game is very difficult."

And Arteta was keen to stress the removal of former Spurs talisman Harry Kane from this fixture wasn't necessarily a weakness with Manor Solomon excelling and new signing Brennan Johnson making an instant impact.

He added: "They have many other qualities and many other players who can create and make a difference in the game. Probably it’s a big change for them but they’ve adapted really well."