Mikel Arteta lifts the lid on his relationship with Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino

Mikel Arteta and Mauricio Pochettino go way back, and the Arsenal boss says there's "nobody better" than his Argentine counterpart.

The pair have been battling it out in the Premier League for a full season now, but once a upon time they were very close. They shared a dressing for a season-and-a-half at PSG back in the early 00s, and Arteta says the now Chelsea manager was like a father to him.

"Mauricio was like a shield for me," the Spaniard told BBC Sounds. "He was protecting me from everything. He was giving me so much confidence.

"He was playing behind me and then it was like having someone constantly pushing you in your back and coaching you and helping you all the time. I could not find anybody better."

Arteta joined the French club on loan in 2001 as a doe-eyed youngster, having failed to make the grade at Barcelona while Pochettino, who at that point was an experienced veteran defender, joined from Espanyol in the same window. The duo struck up an immediate friendship, with Pochettino taking the young midfielder under his wing.

"He’s one of the most [influential players I've played with]," Arteta said of Pochettino earlier this year. "I was 17 or 18 in Paris with no experience in professional football. He doesn’t like me saying it but to me he was like a father, he took me under his arm, he gave me incredible advice and protected me, he inspired me and I learned so much in our two years together."

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Together at PSG, Arteta and Pochettino helped the club seal a fourth place finish in the league - a significant improvement on the previous campaign in which they finished ninth - though the brilliance of a young Ronaldinho played a significant part too.

In the summer of 2002, Arteta's loan spell ended and he returned to Barcelona before being sold to Rangers. After two years in Scotland he joined Real Sociedad before sealing a career-defining move to Everton in 2004.

Pochettino, meanwhile, stayed at PSG until 2003, at which point he moved to Bordeaux. However, six months later he left France to re-join old club Espanyol - the club who would give him his first gig in senior management in 2009.

Arteta and Pochettino have faced each other just twice as managers. Their first clash ended in a draw, with Arsenal scoring two late goals to snatch a point against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge back in October, but their second ended in an absolute mauling, with the Gunners smashing five goals past the Blues in a thumping win last month.