CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Arsenal v FC Porto:BRAZILIAN STRIKER Hulk will be named in Porto's party for this game, but it is Arsene Wenger who will be saying "Don't make me angry" so soon after Saturday's shock home defeat.

"The manager didn't have to say anything to us," defender Kolo Toure said as he reflected on Arsenal's 2-1 loss to Hull City. "But he said some difficult words to everybody."

Wenger broods on defeats, particularly the bad ones, and he described the Hull reverse as the "biggest shock result". Having said after the game that he felt "physically sick", his system had still to clear yesterday and he accused his young players of complacency.

"We are solid, more solid than ever when we are completely switched on, but at the moment I am not sure we can focus all the time in every single game, especially when we think the game will be easy," he said.

"It is a good learning curve because you cannot get worse than that.

"We do not have a problem (in the Champions League), and at Bolton (10 days ago) we were 1-0 down but you could see that the team was really focused. In the games in which we are favourites we have to be as difficult to play against as the others."

Arsenal came back to win 3-1 at Bolton and earlier in the month they had a 4-0 win at Blackburn. Wenger's team have struggled historically at both grounds and against opposition that he has labelled direct and overly physical. The turning of that corner, however, only made the Hull result more difficult for him to digest.

"It shows we are not completely there on the mental side and that is where we have to work," he said. "In the past we have been beaten physically, we have been intimidated. We know we can deal with that now but we are sometimes a bit too confident in the home games, when we need to put some effort in.

"We won convincingly at Blackburn and Bolton and that is more down to mental preparation. When you are young you think things are going to be easy. When you have a bang on the head like this you have to understand the need to be consistent. It was a big bang."

Although Wenger said he would rather have had a Premier League fixture tonight to set the record straight, there was also an element of relief that he would send out his team to face a technically accomplished European side.

Porto have made an unbeaten start to their league season and Wenger was impressed by their "convincing" 3-1 home win over Fenerbahce in the opening round. Arsenal drew 1-1 at Dynamo Kiev.

"It is a different situation in the Champions League because you are playing against teams who are at the top of their league. They take a responsibility to play; Hull's first responsibility was not to lose. I still don't think that Hull (could) go to Portugal and win the league."

Guardian Service