Arsene Wenger has called on his Arsenal players to retain their killer instinct on Wednesday night to sink Basel in the Champions League.
The Frenchman warned his jubilant stars to guard against complacency in the wake of a red-hot display to beat Chelsea on Saturday.
Wenger, whose men came from a goal down to earn a point from their group opener away to Paris Saint-Germain, said: “Everyone will think that Basel will be easy. Then you look at the results of Basel against English teams, and you realise it will not be easy.”
As Wenger noted, Swiss champions Basel have a good record against English opposition.
They saw off Liverpool in the Champions League group stage two years ago, did the same to Chelsea a year earlier, put Spurs out of the Europa League on penalties in April 2013 and beat Manchester United in the Champions League in 2011.
Domestically, Basel have won all nine league games so far this season, and they drew their first Champions League game at home to Ludogorets of Bulgaria.
Wenger added: “They beat Manchester United, they beat Chelsea, they beat Liverpool.
“So let’s prepare properly and keep our feet on the ground because in our job, one thing I know if you are not prepared you are quickly hit on your head.”
Wenger did admit, however, that the win to end Arsenal’s Chelsea hoodoo would fill his side with belief that this could be their year both domestically and in Europe.
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He added: “It will help with belief, but in __football you start again on Monday morning and show you can do it again.
“But we showed that we can play the style of __football we want to play. That is based on pressure on the opponent, play with connections, with pace.
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“I know we can do that. And against Chelsea our superiority, collectively we could play together at a high pace.
“That is what football is about. It’s not about one player. It’s not me, me, me. It’s about one, two and three.”