Aston Villa manager Remi Garde has said that his former manager Arsene Wenger lives for Arsenal ahead of the two clubs' Premier League meeting on Sunday at Villa Park.
Garde played under Wenger at the Gunners for three years at the end of the 1990s, and was part of the side which won the league and cup double in 1997-98.
The 49-year-old, who will face his former boss as an opposing manager for the first time on Sunday, says that Wenger lives and breathes for his job in charge of the North London side.
"I have got a lot of admiration because I realise how tough this job is in the Premier League, how difficult it is to keep a job and get results," Garde told Sky Sports News. "I remember the club at Arsenal 20 years ago without training facilities, without a modern stadium like they have today. All this has to be credited to Arsene.
"A football club is not only the results you get today but also how you will build for the future for yourself or for another manager for or another chairman or owner. Of course trophies are the main target all the managers have but also to get trophies in the long term and to build a solid club you have to build other stuff. For that Arsene has done brilliantly.
"I think that you have to dedicate all your life to football and I am not sure that Arsene had long holidays or many days off since he took the job at Arsenal. You have to be completely focused and more than focused, you have to live for football and your football club. Arsene has always lived for football and he has been rewarded for that."
Garde's Villa side are six points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League table ahead of Sunday's clash and are without a league win since the opening day of the season, while Arsenal sit two points behind league leaders Leicester City.
Tom Nightingale
