Arsenal (3) v Celta Vigo (2) Highbury, 7.45 On TV: Sky Sports 2: When Arsene Wenger suggested his team could well be knocked out of the Champions League by Celta Vigo tonight if they repeat some of the things they did at Portsmouth, he was not joking.

For most people, Saturday's performance in the 5-1 win at Fratton Park was close to perfection. As far as Wenger was concerned, there were warning signs.

Given that Wenger spoke yesterday of his desire to recreate what Ajax offered in the early 1970s, it can be taken as read that he enjoyed the opening hour last weekend as his side rattled in their goals. Yet he also remembers the final 15 minutes.

As Arsenal relaxed, Portsmouth not only scored but struck the post, bar and had a shot cleared off the line.

Complacency is a mindset Wenger wants to avoid tonight. Arsenal look comfortable given that they lead 3-2 and Vigo are in crisis in Spain's bottom three. But Wenger will recall poor defending in Galicia and ignore the fact that Celta's recent games have seen them concede - in sequence - two, three, four and then last Sunday five goals, pointing to them letting in six at Highbury.

"I believe they're much better than they are playing at the moment in their league," said Wenger. "On what I have seen from them against us and (in a 4-2 defeat) against Real Madrid I'm convinced a not 100 per cent-focused Arsenal would have a problem.

"In the last 15 minutes against Portsmouth we eased off and they hit the post and the bar and that's a good reason for us to be focused. We have seen how quickly you can be punished and that's a good warning for us."

This is not to say that Arsenal will stick everyone behind the ball and hope to play out a goalless draw. Winning with style is always Wenger's aim.

He has far more admiration for the Ajax team which won three European Cups from 1971-73 than for the Bayern Munich side that captured the next three.

Wenger was a player in his early 20s with Mutzig when Ajax were in their pomp. "They really had perfect players nearly everywhere," he said. "At that time I thought: 'That is the sort of football I would like to play'."

Comparisons between Ajax's total football and Arsenal's recent displays were drawn after the demolition of Portsmouth, but Wenger treats those with caution.

He said: "We are far (from that) because that team won everything in Europe. Ajax won three European Cups on the trot and we, at the moment, have won nothing."

"But what's most important is the team has the same vision of the game and wants to improve."

Arsenal ought to progress tonight. Given that away goals count double if scores are level on aggregate, Vigo need to score at least twice. No one has managed that at Highbury since Newcastle in September, and they lost 3-2.

Guardian Service

ARSENAL (Provisional squad): Lehmann, Stack, Lauren, Toure, Campbell, Keown, Cygan, Cole, Clichy, Vieira, Gilberto Silva, Edu, Pires, Ljungberg, Bentley, Reyes, Bergkamp, Henry, Kanu.