Heat's on for Arsene

"I'm sure Arsene will have stressed the importance of clearing the mind and concentrating solely on the next big challenge. I think they'll beat Chelsea but it's going to be tough."

Neill regards Arsenal as the outstanding team of this season, but Wenger would sacrifice the most extravagant compliments for a trophy.

The Premiership title looks safe, though a Chelsea win at Highbury tomorrow would do wonders for their confidence. The 1-0 win at Spurs leaves them four points behind the leaders, though they have played a game more.

One of the measures of a great team is their ability to recover from setbacks and Wenger will be seeking confirmation of Arsenal's resilience tomorrow.

Their defeat to United was of their own making. The decision to rest Thierry Henry allowed Sir Alex Ferguson to smother the midfield and compress play and this gave Arsenal little room to exploit their passing game.

Even so, they should have won. But, after Edu and Patrick Vieira hit the woodwork, Wes Brown headed off the line and the impressive Roy Carroll saved well from Kolo Toure and Dennis Bergkamp, I thought of Bergkamp's penalty miss in the 1999 semi-final epic and was forced to the conclusion that only one team was going to the final.

Arsenal may instead be going to Gelsenkirchen for the Champions League Final. First, though, they must get past Chelsea, who have won all their previous away games. A 1-1 draw in the first leg means that Claudio Ranieri's side must score at Highbury tomorrow, so a thriller is in prospect.

"We have to pick ourselves up," said Wenger. "Mentally, the players are strong and if we were given the choice of beating United or Chelsea we would have chosen Chelsea."