Rebuild the fortress

There has certainly been plenty of contrasting emotions to the season so far despite playing just one match domestically.

Strangely Celtic's record so far is 100% home and away, two defeats out of two at home and two wins on the road!

Last week at Aberdeen they put down the domestic marker with a 45 minute display that no SPL side could live with. After the break things got a bit slack but it's unlikely that Massimo Donati will be centre half when the serious games come around.

The win at Pittodrie should have drawn a line under last season's miserable away form, it was more than a win, it was the rediscovery that if you go out and attack teams with pace and determination there isn't much to be fearful.

PAINFUL

Today St Johnstone visit Celtic Park. Last season's away form was painful, the home form and results weren't much better.

Four games against Hearts and Rangers failed to produce a single win while two goal leads were squandered against Aberdeen, Hibs and Dundee United.

That form may have made life more exciting for mythical neutrals but the home highlight of last season was a 7-0 win over St Mirren when the team really let rip.

Unfortunately the following week we managed to lose 1-0 to the Buddies with barely a shot on target for our efforts.

All that is in the past, at Aberdeen we had a fresh start with a first half that had even the hardest to please of supporters impressed.

There is no room for slacking today against St Johnstone, the team can't be feeling sorry for themselves after the Arsenal match or allow their thoughts to drift to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.

MCGEADY

Again today Shaun Maloney and Aiden McGeady will be vital, they are now wingers rather than midfielders, wingers with licence and the belief of their manager that they have the intelligence to adapt their play as the game develops.

At the back it's great to see Artur Boruc back towards his best, there were plenty of howlers last season, some punished some not.

A reliable goalkeeper is essential to any team, seeing Artur concentrated and secure, and capable of brilliance when required, spreads confidence throughout the rest of the team.

St Johnstone promise to be more than decent, Derek McInnes and Tony Docherty have build a good squad that should be capable of repeating Hamilton's efforts last season and surviving in the SPL.

GULF

They were involved in a great game last week with Motherwell but if Celtic start the game in top gear, as they did at Aberdeen, then the visitors will find out that there's a bigger gulf between Celtic and Motherwell than there is between the First Division and the SPL.

The defeat from Arsenal was disappointing, we all expected more, maybe not a win but some chances, some pressure and some hope for the return match.

It looks like the Champions League is over for the season, a convincing win today against St Johnstone will go some way towards ensuring that the title is on it's way back to Celtic Park and that the excitement of Champions League qualifiers is absent from the start of next season.

A strong winning performance today will send out the right message to follow on from the Aberdeen result. Last season most teams could come to Celtic Park quite confident that they could contain Celtic and be hopeful of taking a point.

Rebuilding the home form, restoring confidence amongst the players and expectations with the supporters should make the new season much more enjoyable... and successful.

The Celt that ended Arsenal's Champions League dream

by Joe McHugh

The smugness and contempt flowing from down south since Tuesday's match has been very unpleasant and patronising.

I'm no defender of the SPL, Celtic represent themselves not the SPL on the park, but the comments flowing after Arsenal's 2-0 win really needs addressing, and remembering.

None of the gloating has come from Arsenal, they are a proper football club with largely the right values and attitudes although it does seem very strange that for the last four years or so there's barely been an Englishman anywhere near their first team.

The smug sarcasm from down south over the last few days are very similar in tone with the comments that greeted Henrik Larsson's scoring achievements.

CRITICS

If the King of Kings brilliance was solely within Scotland the critics would have a point but Henrik, whilst playing in the SPL scored at every level he played at.

He scored in the Uefa Cup, he scored in the Champions League. Whilst with Celtic he scored at Euro 2000 and 2004 and also at the World Cup in 2002, after Celtic he scored at the World Cup in 2006.

I don't think that any of the English golden boys have been able to match that sort of achievement.

PROCLAIMED

After Celtic Henrik didn't consider the self proclaimed greatest league in the world as he moved to Barcelona, not many of England's finest have been given a contract from Barcelona.

Best of all as London prepared to welcome the European Cup for the first time Henrik was sent on to win the big cup for Barcelona.

Despite the wonders of the Premiership and the combined riches of Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea the European Cup has never been paraded through London.

BARCELONA

Sol Campbell's first half header in the Stade de France looked like ending that unpleasant statistic with Barcelona making no impact against the wonderful Arsenal defence. Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o, Ludovic Guily and Deco had given their best when Frank Rijkard turned to a substitute that had spent the best years of his career in the 'backwater' of Scottish football.

Surely now the trophy was finally London bound, with half an hour left to play the mighty Barcelona were forced to turn to a 30something former Celtic player about to return home to Sweden where surely the football would be of a standard where he would be more comfortable.

The King of Kings had other ideas and although he didn't score himself, he did set up goals for Eto'o and Juliano Belleti to deservedly win the trophy for Barca.

That season was the closest that Arsenal have ever come to winning the big cup.

PERSPECTIVE

As their smug cronies crow about their win over Celtic and the superiority of all things English perhaps some humility and perspective should intervene but those qualities have rarely been associated with the English when it comes to sport as they continue to regard all things outwith their beloved Premiership as strictly second class.

It'll probably be a long long time till the Celtic support is treated to another Larsson-like talent, that's why he was so revered and celebrated during his time at Celtic and beyond.

After helping Barcelona to the European Cup he answered an SOS from Manchester United and helped steer them to the Premiership as well as progressing in the Champions League.

HELSINGBORGS

Henrik being Henrik however wasn't for hanging about, once his agreed deal was up it was choorio to the glories of the Premiership and back to Sweden with Helsingborgs, turning his back on the run-in to the English season despite the pleas for him to see the season out.

It's unlikely that there is a Larsson in the current Celtic squad, capable of turning Wednesday's tie Celtic's way, but whatever the outcome of the match at the Emirates Stadium Celtic's name is stamped firmly on the history of the games greatest trophy.

Champions League Final 2006

Diarmuid O'Carroll on trial at Ujpest

Former Celtic striker Diarmuid O'Carroll is to join Ujpest Dozsa for a week long trial.

The 22-year-old scored five goals for Morecambe in League Two last season but is currently without a club.

Ujpest, now managed by former Celtic reserve coach Willie McStay, are on the look out for a forward after losing THREE strikers in less than a week.

Injuries to Peter Kabat and Atilla Simon will put both strikers out of action for at least a month with Tibor Tizsa transferred to Royal Antwerp in Belgium on Monday.

IMPROVE

Ujpest are sitting in sixth place in the table after four games with McStay looking to improve the squad ahead of the transfer deadline and has already secured Celtic's Mark Millar on a season long loan.

McStay said: "It's great to be managing at a good level of football, I've been impressed by the standard of football in Hungary and the quality of the players at Ujpest.

"Every manager is looking to improve his squad and we're looking at Diarmuid as a striking option.

"I know him well from his days at Celtic, he's had a full season with Morecambe and I'll look closely at him over the next few days.

"We had a decent start to the season then lost 3-0 at home on Sunday to Papa, I learned a lot from that game, mainly that at any level you must convert your chances.

"We had twenty efforts on goal in that match and failed to score, Papa had five chances and scored three of them.

STRIKER

"In training we've worked hard on a lot of things but ideally we'd like to bring in another striker or two. After losing last week it was a big blow that two of the strikers got injured just as we were selling Tibor Tizsa to Antwerp.

"We've got Honved to play on Sunday which will be interesting because it's a derby match. There are five Budapest clubs in the top division and the whole country has had a big lift with Debrecini looking good for a Champions League place.

"They won the first leg 2-1 away to Levski Sofia and the whole country is looking for them to qualify next week."

McStay added: "The job here is all consuming but we're quickly coming to terms with things and finding our way around the football scene although the language is difficult to learn.

"Having Joe McBride with me is great, we know how each other operates and the signs are good that we can bring some success to the club."

TOM BOYD AUDIO INTERVIEW: Part 2

By kick-off time tonight every Battle of Britain cliche will have been used up.

The media whip up the hype in response to supporters and interest, tonight's Celtic-Arsenal clash is a unique knock-out tie in what is basically the first week of the football season.

The build up would be much less intense if Celtic had been drawn against Stuttgart or Lyon, the club may have had to try pushing ticket sales but that wasn't needed from the moment the Uefa draw paired Celtic and Arsenal together.

TOM BOYD AUDIO INTERVIEW PART 2

TOM BOYD AUDIO INTERVIEW PART 1

A decade or two ago the game would have been entirely different, George Graham's '1-0 to the Arsenal' side played a different brand of football even though Iain Wright and Paul Merson did add flair to a famous back four.

BEAUTIFUL

Celtic, under Gordon Strachan, hardly adopted the beautiful game, the trophies were won, the titles celebrated but the football was far from breathtaking with supporters attending through habit without any great hopes or expectations of excitement.

It's only three games into the Tony Mowbray reign but there's an air of excitement back amongst the Celtic support with Arsenal, to quote Martin O'Neill, providing the benchmark to judge how far Celtic have progressed and how far they have to go.

There will be passion and electricity in the air around Celtic Park but it will be a footballing match with little in the way of blood and snotters regardless of the Battle of Britain tag.

Tom Boyd has savoured just about everything that can come your way as a Celtic player and supporter, the despair and elation that are invariably mixed together before and after the huddle.

ANTICIPATION

Celtic Park has hosted all of the major names in European football over the last decade with Boyd anticipating tonight's game eagerly without being whooped along by the hype.

He said: "The game is built up a lot in the press but it's not a bigger match than playing Milan or Barcelona who've been to Celtic Park recently.

"Arsenal have very little English players, the manager has his own style of play, it's not an English style game or mentality. He prefers the foreign approach.

ENGLAND

"Fabio Capello has also got England playing a bit differently. As a nation England are renowned for their battling style but that's not the Arsenal way, they like to get the ball down and play, that's why I think that we'll have a great open style of football.

"I don't think that the game will fail to live up to expectations. The way that both managers play the game I'm expecting it to be an open free-flowing match.

"It won't be a Battle of Britain type of game, I'm looking forward to a lot of great players being on show. I just hope that Celtic come out of the game intact and with a chance for the second leg."

NAKAMURA

The focus of attention for Celtic so far this season has been on Aiden McGeady and Shaun Maloney, to such an extent that the departure of Shunsuke Nakamura has barely been mentioned.

Nakamura brought class, poise and style to Strachan's side. He wasn't blessed with blistering pace but made up for that in other ways with a string of memorable goals and performances littering his Celtic career.

Four good seasons is as much as you can expect from players these days with Naka moving on before he had the chance to work with Mowbray.

How he would have fitted into the new-look Celtic side will remain unanswered but Boyd has no doubt that the Japanese midfielder would have thrived under Mowbray.

WIDE

The former Celtic skipper added: "When you look at the wide men, Shaun and Aiden, there is a lot of pace but Naka would be able to play as well.

"If you look at Aiden being given licence to roam I think that would have suited Naka with the way that he can play and pick his passes.

"He was never allowed to play that way. Like Aiden he had to do a job for the team in a wide midfield position and also working back the way.

"I think that Nakamura would have excelled playing in the hole and being allowed to come in off the wing as often as Aiden is.

"Shaun coming back has covered for the loss of Nakamura, him and Aiden are key players for Tony and it would be interesting to see who would come in if either of them picked up a knock.

"That would be a dilemma for the manager, would he change his style and formation if he didn't have the pace in the wider areas that he's getting from these areas."

Boyd will watch the game as a Celtic supporter, partisan in his support for the side that he captained but fearful of making any type of prediction.

MINGIN

"I just want a Celtic victory, in terms of scores and predictions I'm absolutely mingin!" he laughed. "I do that in the Number 7 lounge and I've not had anything right for about five years.

"I'm useless when it comes to correct scores, all I want to get right is that Celtic are victorious and enter the Champions League."

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE VIDEO

Peter Grant: Arsenal could keep the ball off you in a phone box!

First team coach Peter Grant is becoming a TalkSport regular on Alan Brazil's morning show.

Peter is apparently the first man through the doors at Lennoxtown with energy and enthusiasm to burn and loves to get gabbing about Celtic.

After a decade in exile down south he's clearly loving being back again with the big match atmosphere bubbling away as he prepares for tomorrow's match with Arsenal.

PETER GRANT TALKSPORT INTERVIEW

The Celtic management team know Arsenal better than the Gunners know Celtic with Grant in no doubt about the quality of their Champions League opponents.

He said: "Arsenal could keep the ball off you in a phone box, we have to concern ourselves with what we do when we have the ball.

ARSENAL

"We did that at West Bromwich Albion and that's the way that we approach every game. We'll go into this game having a right go at Arsenal as much as they'll be having a go at us. We've got good players and match winners as well.

"We're looking for Aiden and Shaun to influence every game, they should be seeing the ball all the time, in the past they've been stuck out in areas where they can't influence the game.

"The other players have to learn how to create space for them, slowly but surely they are starting to learn that.

"When those two get on the ball, when they get freedom they can do damage as they showed at Aberdeen. They've set the standards for themselves and we're delighted with them."

HAMMERING

After the joys of watching Celtic take Aberdeen apart in the first half at Pittodrie Arsenal responded in style with a 6-1 hammering of Everton.

The quality of Aberdeen and Everton is clearly open to question but there's no doubting that Celtic and Arsenal appear to be in top form as they prepare for tomorrow nights clash.

"We've not been sleeping since Saturday night," Grant laughed. "We already knew that Arsenal are a fantastic side but David (Moyes) would be the first to admit that it's very unlike Everton to conceded the goals that they did.

"Arsenal have top quality players, there's no doubt about that but we've got good players as well and we won't go into the game frightened.

RUSSIA

"Our players have got a bit of belief from going to Russia and winning. I think that our performance there was underestimated, we played very well over there and we want to continue that.

"It's fantastic games for both clubs, everybody keeps saying that Celtic must be disappointed with the draw but Arsenal won't be too pleased with it either."

Coming up later today Tom Boyd looks forward to the Arsenal matches

TOM BOYD AUDIO INTERVIEW: We'll get through against Arsenal

by Joe McHugh Former Celtic skipper Tom Boyd is looking forward to seeing the hoops put Arsenal out of the Champions League.

The build up towards Tuesday's clash was upped a notch or three, or six, by the weekend results with both side's turning on the style to win convincingly away from home.

Tom Boyd audio interview

The talking that matters will be carried out on the pitch with Boyd confident that Celtic can turn on the style to book a place in the group stages of the Champions League.

MOSCOW

He said: "I'm confident about the match, the way that the boys played against Aberdeen and in the second leg against Moscow Dynamo will have given everyone confidence.

"I know that Arsenal went on to beat Everton 6-1 but I think that Celtic at Celtic Park in the Champions League is very different.

"That win could be a good thing for Celtic. Arsenal got it easy with Everton being so poor, hopefully they will underestimate Celtic coming off a very good performance like that. I'm sure that they will come up here confident of doing something in the first match.

"We have a proud record in Europe at Celtic Park. Tony Mowbray has got the team playing in a different style, a far more open, inventive and creative style and the players will be looking forward to the challenge of facing Arsenal."

MCGEADY

Mowbray's side is starting to have a settled look about it with a heavy emphasis on speed from the wide areas through Shaun Maloney and Aiden McGeady.

Scott McDonald and Georgios Samaras got the goals in Moscow to take Celtic into the final Champions League qualifier but new signing Marc-Antoine Fortune has still to find the net... after three competitive games!

Fortune's contribution to the team can't be doubted but equally strikers are there to score goals and it's not unreasonable to expect a Celtic striker to find the net 20 times a season given the domination and possession that they enjoy in most games.

Not every striker has suddenly found the net as soon as they pull on a Celtic jersey with Boyd recalling one famous Celt who took his time before getting amongst the goals.

HARTSON

The former Celtic defender added: "The legend that is John Hartson took a long time to get his first Celtic goal, I think that he finally scored with a hat-trick against Dundee United.

"John went on to score over a hundred goals for Celtic and I'm looking forward to Marco getting his first goal.

"It's not a concern at the moment although I'd love him to get a goal to lift the monkey from his back, the longer it goes on the more that the press will make of it.

"The way that he plays helps the team, he's a key figure within the way that Tony wants the team to play."

Tom Boyd audio interview part 2 to follow Tuesday afternoon

Mark Millar gets Ujpest debut

by Joe McHugh

Loan Celt Mark Millar will make his debut for Ujpest Dozsa against Papa this afternoon.

Ujpest received international clearance during the week for the midfielder who played in a friendly match on Tuesday.

With the temperature in Budapest touching 34 degrees this afternoon it's unlikely that Millar will last the full 90 minutes.

A win at home today would maintain Ujpest's unbeaten start to the season and lift them into third place behind joint leaders Ferencvaros and Honved who have both won all four league games.

Ujpest had to play their previous home match behind closed doors but manager Willie McStay is looking forward to having some vocal backing at today's game.

The former Celtic reserve coach said: "Thankfully we will be playing the game against Papa in front of the fans. They showed just how special an atmosphere they can create in the home leg against Steaua.

"They also followed us in good numbers to Győr, on the opening day of the season, and proved a massive help to us. The players will get an added bit of confidence when they play in front of our fans, who will help to bring out the maximum in the game."

The game kicks off at 4.30pm BST.

Hungarian league table