LONDON -- Arsene Wenger has urged his players to forget about the win over Chelsea and make sure they avoid another Champions League stumble when they face Basel on Wednesday.
Arsenal produced their best performance of the season in beating Chelsea 3-0 on Saturday and enter the group-stage game against the Swiss champions as big favourites.
But the Gunners were in a similar situation last year when they followed up a 5-2 win at Leicester with a disappointing 3-2 home loss against Olympiakos in midweek, and Wenger wants to make sure history isn't repeated.
"The humility is to accept that you have to start from scratch again," Wenger said at his news conference on Tuesday. "We had a good game on Saturday but let's show that we can go from good game to good game, and put the effort in every single game.
"We made it difficult for ourselves [last year]. We have learned as well that in the group stage, it's not only important to qualify but if possible to qualify top of the group. It gives you many more chances to go through."
Arsenal have been eliminated in the round of 16 in six straight seasons, usually after finishing second in their group. This time they are off to a good start after earning a 1-1 draw at Paris Saint-Germain in their first match, and forward Theo Walcott says that result shows this team is ready to go further than in previous years.
"I think it's always important to start off well. We've managed to do that against PSG, a tough team. We found it quite difficult but we managed to get a result. It's a different sort of team we've got this year, very experienced, very well balanced. And we've got tremendous pace going forward, tremendous energy as well," Walcott said.
"In previous years, in the first game at the Emirates we found it quite difficult to be honest. Especially after a good result at the weekend. So we need to make sure the energy is high again. Because we know how strong they're going to be, we're going to find it difficult to break them down."
Arsenal have not played Basel in the competition before, but Wenger is well familiar with the team from the scouting work that went into recruiting Mohamed Elneny from the Swiss team last season.
Summer signing Granit Xhaka also started his career at Basel, who have proven before that they can be quite successful against top English teams. They beat Chelsea twice in 2013 and knocked Manchester United out of the competition in 2011 by winning their last group match.
"It's a team that dominated the Swiss championship for many years and have had excellent results in England. They've beaten everybody in England -- Man United and Chelsea and Liverpool," Wenger said. "I don't expect them to be intimidated at all. On the other hand they have nothing to lose as well. That's always dangerous."