Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger wants a Battle of Britain in the Champions League quarter-finals as he guns for revenge over Manchester United or Chelsea.

Wenger’s side powered into the last eight with a majestic 5-0 victory over Porto at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday that sealed a 6-2 aggregate win.

Nicklas Bendtner was the Gunners’ hero with the first hat-trick of his career, but sublime displays from Samir Nasri and Andrey Arshavin put Wenger in unusually fiesty form after the match.

Winning in such style without captain Cesc Fabregas, key defender William Gallas and star forward Robin van Persie clearly got Wenger’s juices flowing as he claimed Arsenal would fancy their chances against Premier League rivals United or Chelsea.

Arsenal have already lost all four league meetings with their two main rivals this season, as well losing the Champions League semi-final to Sir Alex Ferguson’s team last season and last year’s FA Cup semi-final against the Blues.

But Wenger insisted he would be happy to play either side in the next round of Europe’s elite club competition.

“I have a funny feeling maybe it’s good for us to play an English team,” Wenger said. “We have not done well against Chelsea and against Man United this year and it would be a good chance to show we can do it against them.

If we get them we can’t do worse than we did in the Premier League.

“What I don’t want is a negative obsession with avoiding Chelsea or Manchester United.

“We are happy to be in the last eight. It is never easy to be in the top eight in Europe.

The negative side of that is you only have good teams left now.”

After being widely written off several times this season, Arsenal showed they are made of sterner stuff than many believed with the kind of magical display that suggests they could yet end their five-year wait for silverware.

They are still in the hunt for the title and will fancy their chances against anyone in Europe on this form, yet Wenger admits there is still room for improvement.

“At the beginning of the season nobody expected this team to be where they are, but it is important to improve more,” he said. “There are still some weak moments in the game when we need to improve.

Before we think about Barcelona, Chelsea or Manchester United we need to improve.” And Wenger reserved special praise for the under-fire Bendter.

“It shows you how football can change very quickly for players in three days,” said the Frenchman. “It shows you as well that he had not lost the confidence. He came back with a good focus and the same belief.” And Bendtner added:

“Every time I play a game I put it behind me as soon as it’s finished. Sometimes it’s one of those days and I put it right here.”

Once again Porto left England licking their wounds after inept defending, but boss Jesualdo Ferreira conceded his team may have been beaten by the tournament’s eventual winners.

“I think they can win it,” he said. “They have players of great quality.”