CHAMPIONS LEAGUE/Group E: With a rigorous trial ahead in the Philips Stadium tonight, Arsene Wenger could hardly become overwrought about an appearance before the Football Association that may take place on Thursday of next week.

The Arsenal manager requested a personal hearing over the charge of improper conduct laid against him because of comments made in the wake of last month's defeat to Manchester United.

"We all know him, he can only cheat people," Wenger said of Ruud van Nistelrooy in a post-match television interview. He is not about to recant now. "I don't really know what I'm charged with," he complained. "I stand by what I said.

"After all that happened over that whole day, you've got to have a sense of humour (when you're) the only one who is charged. You should not always be politically correct. At some stage you have to say what you think, without insulting people."

It is absent-minded of Wenger to portray himself as the sole victim, when van Nistelrooy had to serve a three-match ban for a challenge on Ashley Cole. The issue, though, is trifling to Arsenal compared to the potential devastation in Eindhoven.

A draw followed by a home win over Rosenborg will take Arsenal through to the knock-out phase, but they are likely to be eliminated if PSV overcome them tonight.

In a dozen matches since the defeat by Arsenal at Highbury the leaders of the Dutch League have conceded a single goal. "I think they will keep it tight," Wenger guessed.

He cannot count on his own back four. With the exception of the loss to United, Arsenal have held the lead in every other fixture they have failed to win this season. That weakness has been compounded by the absence of Sol Campbell, with an achilles injury, since the trip to Old Trafford. It is likely Campbell will play this evening.

"We decided to give him a hard session on Saturday and he responded well to it," Wenger explained. "I felt we needed a little bit of reassurance at the back and he can give it to us."

Dennis Bergkamp, who also has an achilles problem, was not required to travel. Though Campbell's participation is more important, Arsenal are better at relieving pressure with an attacking style than resisting it in a stolid manner.

"There is nothing worse in football than not knowing what you want to do," Wenger said. "This team has tremendous quality and they are at their best if they just focus on the way we want to play, without worrying too much."

Arsenal were in greater difficulties a year ago and reacted with a 5-1 win over Internazionale in Milan. Thierry Henry scored twice then, but the PSV midfielder Phillip Cocu, in a scathing critique of the visitors, argued that the forward is not "as cool now as before". Wenger expects Henry to be stimulated by this damning appraisal.

There was sinister condemnation in the racist chanting of the PSV crowd when Arsenal were last here two seasons ago. The Dutch club promise the problem has been countered since then. The referee Herbert Fandel has threatened to take both sides off the pitch if there is any recurrence tonight, but that sort of stance dismays Wenger. He worries fans will know they therefore possess the means to force the abandonment of any game their team is losing.

"It doesn't look like a solution that has any reasonable outcome," he complained. "It means you have not mastered the situation."

Wenger was not in sympathy either with the premature halt called to the Roma v Dynamo Kiev Champions League fixture this season when the referee Anders Frisk had his head cut by a missile.

"If there is a riot outside the ground in which 20 people are killed," he said, "what kind of responsibility do you have for it? That could have happened that day at Roma. I found it very cowardly not to go on with the game."

This fixation with the match itself never fades for Wenger, who admits to having been "physically sick at the start of my career" after one or two losses. Should Arsenal be beaten tonight, every Highbury stomach will lurch with his.

PSV EINDHOVEN (probable): Gomes; Ooijer, Alex, Bouma, Lee; Van Bommel, Cocu, Vogel; Park, Sibon, Beasley.

ARSENAL (probable): Lehmann; Lauren, Toure, Campbell, Cole; Ljungberg, Vieira, Fabregas, Pires; Reyes, Henry.

Referee: H Fandel (Germany).