Title not a foregone conclusion, warns Wenger

ARSENE WENGER will warn his Arsenal players not to take the Premiership crown for granted before they step out at White Hart Lane tomorrow in a bid to recreate their title-winning achievement of 1971.

Back then, when Arsenal clinched the title at the home of their arch-rivals Tottenham, Wenger was still an economics student at Strasbourg University, while playing for Third Division side Mutzig.

Now, if Chelsea fail to beat Newcastle tomorrow at 2pm in St James' Park, Arsenal will run out at White Hart Lane knowing victory will bring them another Premiership success.

"The quicker we win the title, the better. Not for any specific humiliating reason, just that there is always a tension there for as long as you don't win it," Wenger said.

"The decisive point can be somewhere special but the most important thing is to win it, no matter where it is. We're in an environment where you can switch off as other people think it is already done. But it's not.

"The players are intelligent enough to realise that it is not yet done but I will remind them of that before the game. We have to get our focus back on the reality of a game that is hard to win."

Wenger believes Tottenham, still with just 37 points, are "90% safe" from the threat of relegation, but knows they will raise their game against their local rivals.

After all, the Arsenal boss, who has lost just once at White Hart Lane, but equally not won there since 1999, admitted "it's never been a stroll there".

Tensions will be high, especially if Chelsea fail to win, although the trophy will not be awarded at the final whistle if Arsenal have prevailed and celebrations will have to be restrained.

"We have a run in the Premiership but also on the disciplinary side that we want to keep running too," Wenger said. "Sol Campbell will face some verbal abuse but now he's used to it and although it was dangerous on his first return there, he is slowly being considered a real Arsenal player."

Campbell will again underpin the Arsenal defence at White Hart Lane, with Ashley Cole set to return to the side after an ankle injury.

Fredrik Ljungberg, meanwhile, faces a fitness test on his broken hand as he is "not pain-free yet from surgery".

Either way, Tottenham can only reflect just how far they have fallen behind their nearest rivals, with Wenger insisting the current gulf has nothing to do with finances.

"There is no real difference between the financial potential of the two clubs. The main difference now is that we play in the Champions League and they do not," he said.

"When we have a new ground and have paid for it, it will be different. But in the next 10 to 15 years until then, the difference in potential will not be huge."

Tottenham new boy Michael Brown reckons delaying Arsenal's title-march tomorrow and ending their unbeaten Premiership run would cover a considerable number of cracks in Spurs' dismal season.

"If we can become the first team to beat Arsenal and get the three points that we need to make ourselves safe it would not be a bad get-out, would it?

"I'm told they have won only one in the last six visits here and the feeling I am getting is that we can give them problems."