ARSENE Wenger has no doubts in his mind that Arsenal will be facing another pair of tough Premiership encounters with Wanderers next season.

The Arsenal boss, who saw his glorious Gunners stretch their unbeaten start to the season to a record-equalling 29 matches at Highbury on Saturday has developed enough personal and professional respect for Sam Allardyce's Reebok boys over the past three years that he cannot see them being dragged into the relegation mire.

"They will be safe," Wenger said in an unqualified endorsement.

"They are a good side. They are always a difficult side for us to play and they always give us a hard time.

"They did that again this time and I was not surprised because I saw them against Chelsea ... they have a good central defence, a very good midfield and in the second half they came at us. They kept hold of the ball and they were solid at the back and it was very difficult against them."

Wenger, who saw Arsenal drop precious points to Wanderers in the final furlong of last season's title chase, must be confident that December's 1-1 draw at the Reebok will not have such serious repercussions.

Saturday's 2-1 Highbury victory maintained their nine point lead over second-placed Chelsea with only nine games remaining, but he was making no predictions as he looked forward to the next challenge.

That comes at Chelsea on Wednesday night in the first leg of the European Champions League quarter-final, the first of a three-week diary of events, including Premiership and FA Cup duels with Manchester United, that will determine whether Vieira and Co have what it takes to win the Treble.

"They are big games, yes," he acknowledged, "but the next one is big enough that all the others are hidden behind it.

"We will just focus on that one."

Wenger did suggest, however, that his players might have "eased off" against Wanderers with the challenges of Chelsea and Manchester United in mind.

He added: "It does happen sometimes with big games coming up that, once you are 2-0 up, the players think 'Okay, it is nearly done' and they ease off a little bit.

"Then you lose your game and you are in trouble. I believe that happened a bit here. It was a battle in the end.

"We feel we played a great first half with our fantastic chances, our fantastic movement but at 2-0 they came back with an unexpected 2-1 goal. In the second half we expected to be more dominant because the win was in our favour but we were less (dominant) because we lost our fluency and we ran too much with the ball.

"They pushed us into our half with long balls and we were not able to put the ball down and play our game.

"In the last 10 to 15 minutes it was a little breathtaking."

Wenger was, nonetheless, proud that Arsenal had matched the unbeaten starts of the Leeds side of 73-74 and the Liverpool team of 87-88 and paid tribute to his players for having the consistency as well as the quality to take their place in the record books.

"It is an extraordinary achievement in the modern game," he said.

"It's not easy to be so consistent with your performances every week. The players have been absolutely amazing."