Arsene Wenger lavished praise on Claude Puel and the Saints academy, describing them as “the most prolific producers of top talent in England in the last 15 years.”

Arsenal boss Wenger has raided Saints in the past for academy youngsters such as Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers, and admits to being a big admirer of the way they do things.

He is also a fan of Puel, having managed him for a long spell at Monaco.

The two go head-to-head this evening bidding for a place in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup.

Wenger said: “They (Saints) have certainly been the most prolific producers of top talent in England in the last 15 years. They have not only produced talent, but top talents.

“We have some examples at our club with Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Chambers, but don’t forget they’ve also produced top quality players like Gareth Bale, Adam Lallana and of course others.

“They do not only produce quality players, they scout very well as well because they scouted players like Sadio Mane.”

Wenger admitted he gave Puel advice on his move to England, and is not surprised he is making a success of it.

“I spoke with him before he joined Southampton. After he signed, we became competitors and it’s different,” said Wenger.

“Before he signed, I gave him my impression of the Southampton team and the quality of their players. I always felt that they’ve had a very strong side of very good quality. You see the likes of Fonte and Cedric are European champions now with Portugal, so Southampton have done extremely well with their scouting.

“We talk, of course, but not before the game. When I was at Monaco he was one of my players.

“I followed his career and was always ready to talk when he needed me, but he’s now older than 50, has experience in this job and I think he has done very well at Southampton so far.

“I’m not at all surprised that Puel and Southampton are doing well. He did a good job at Nice over the last four years. He built a good squad at Nice and did some very good work with the youth-team players. You can see Nice are continuing to show that this season in France.”

Mathieu Debuchy and Olivier Giroud are both ruled out of tonight’s game through injury, but striker Lucas Perez is back in the Arsenal squad.

“We will have a mixture of youth and experience, but still 90 per cent of a first-team squad,” insisted Wenger.

He added: “It’s a very difficult game but it’s our next game, and our task is to always win our next game.

“Everybody’s conscious that this is an opportunity for us to pass another round and get into the semi-final. That’s what we want. We have the opportunity of playing at home and we want to take advantage of that.”