Wenger: Premier League is best in Europe

"You only have to look at the quality of the foreign players who want to come here. I think England has become the favoured location for most of the best players in Europe.

"Look at the top class strikers in the Premiership. So many of them now are foreign players."

Wenger, of course, has three of Europe's best attacking players in Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Jose Antonio Reyes, the young prince of Spanish football who has decided to test his potential in the Premiership.

Reyes is likely to be on the bench tonight with Henry and Bergkamp starting together as Arsenal protect their 3-2 lead from the first leg.

Celta's chances of salvaging a place in the quarter-finals are remote, especially as they have conceded 12 goals in their past three games and now have the worst defensive record in Spain.

The 5-1 defeat to Espanyol on Saturday prompted coach Raddy Antic - are Tottenham having second thoughts about him? - to admit: "We're showing ourselves the route to the second division." Arsenal, on the other hand, are attracting plaudits from throughout the footballing world.

The quality of their play at the moment is outstanding and even Premiership rivals are grudgingly admitting that their attacking style, their disciplined defending and their consistency sets them apart at the very top of the European game. Wenger shrugs modestly at the notion. "We have to keep it going," he said with a smile. "We have won nothing yet.

"People compare us to the great teams like Ajax but we are a long way off. The difference is they won the European Cup in three consecutive seasons. We saw in the later stages of the match against Portsmouth how quickly we can be punished if we ease off so, from our point of view, I think there is still a lot of room for improvement.

"It's fantastic if people enjoy the way we play. But our purpose is not to think, 'Are we a great team?'

"Our purpose is to improve and try to win trophies. We let others make the comparisons."

Wenger is a realist who accepts that it's simply not good enough for a club of Arsenal's stature to reach the knockout stages only twice in six successive seasons of Champions League football.

On the last occasion, in the quarterfinals in 2001, they were beaten on the away goals rule by Spanish side Valencia.

But, barring some unforeseen catastrophe, the unbeaten Premiership leaders are certain to secure a place in the last eight tonight, an achievement that would raise the prospect of a mighty clash with their London rivals Chelsea, who they knocked out of the FA Cup.

The Champions League quarterfinal and semi-final draw is on Friday and will allow, for the first time in the campaign, clubs from the same national association to be drawn against each other.

The four winning teams will also know who they can meet in the semifinals as these pairings will be decided on Friday.

Wenger said: "If we go through it would be a shame to be drawn against Chelsea in the quarter-final.

"I'd prefer to avoid them - not for any tactical reason, but because it would give us the chance to have two English clubs in the semi-finals. That would be a fantastic achievement.

"I believe as well that part of the charm of the Champions League is playing against teams from different cultures. You lose some of that if you play domestic opposition. Look how often we play Chelsea."