Dutchman Robin van Persie knows all too well what FC Twente are capable of - and maintains Arsenal "need" Champions League football next season.
The Gunners head back to van Persie's homeland and a crunch date with former England manager Steve McClaren in Arnhem just days after another successful appearance in the Amsterdam Tournament.
Twente - who grabbed the headlines when they appointed the one-time Middlesbrough coach during the summer - were the surprise package of Dutch domestic football last season, and defeated Ajax in a play-off to secure a crack at the elite European club competition for the first time.
Nevertheless, Arsenal - Champions League finalists in 2006 - remain favourites to progress through to the lucrative group stages in which they have competed for more than a decade.
Failure and missing out on the windfall that playing the cream of Europe brings is almost unthinkable and the importance of the tie is not lost on van Persie.
"Arsenal always wants to play Champions League and I think Arsenal needs to play Champions League," said van Persie, signed from Feyenoord in 2004.
"If you have players like this, good players, big stadium, then I think you need to play in the highest league in Europe.
"But this is football - if you don't win two games then you don't qualify and we play UEFA Cup."
Van Persie, 25, keeps an eye on football matters back home, and has been impressed by the progress of the unfashionable side from Enschede, who had to switch their home leg to the Gelredome because of on-going improvement works at the Grolsch Veste stadium.
"I know them quite well as I have Dutch satellite," he said.
"It was quite, though, a big shock because in Holland everyone expected Ajax to win and in the end Twente played better and these things happen in football.
"They had a great year last year, but they lost two of their best playmakers - Karim El Ahmadi and Orlando Engelaar. However, they got Theo Janssen from Vitesse, so they are still in good shape with a good team."
Van Persie feels Twente will have been disappointed to have drawn such a big name as Arsenal in the qualifiers, even though McClaren insists all the pressure is on the English team.
And the Gunners forward claims the much-criticised former national team head coach has been well received in Holland.
"They are really happy with him and almost proud to have him, because it was quite a strange move to come from England manager to Twente," he said.
"But they are all saying they really like his style of coaching."
Van Persie, though, can understand why McClaren came in for so much negative press after England failed to make it to Euro 2008.
"If you don't qualify as the national team you have some critical people waiting for you," he said.
"This is what happened with Louis van Gaal, he was a top manager but he didn't qualify in 2002, when they lost against Ireland, so that's the risk of the job."
The last time McClaren went up against Gunners boss Arsene Wenger was in January 2006 at Highbury, when the home side ran out 7-0 winners.
Van Persie, who did not feature that day, said: "I don't think it's smart to play an open game against us as we are quite good in that part, everyone knows that."
Cesc Fabregas is likely to anchor the midfield on Wednesday night, probably alongside young Brazilian Denilson.
Van Persie feels the experiences with Spain at Euro 2008 will have give his team-mate an extra spring in his step.
"Everyone was really happy for him and proud because it's not nothing if you win a Euro - you really achieve something.
"He is really young but as a person he's exactly the same as before."
Van Persie added: "Everyone accepts Cesc needs a little more time because he came back at the end of the month, but we came back July 21 and we are ready for it.
"We have these pre-season games under our belts and we are ready."
