Charlie’s CL predictions

The Champions League returns this week and we’ve enlisted the help of Soccer Saturday pundit Charlie Nicholas to assess the matches involving Manchester City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Leicester City and Celtic.

Charlie’s former clubs, Arsenal and Celtic, begin with two of the toughest trips in Europe, to Paris and Barcelona respectively, while Manchester City host Borussia Monchengladbach, Tottenham take on Monaco at Wembley and Leicester – making their first appearance in the competition – travel to Club Brugge. 

Here’s how the Soccer Saturday pundit sees the clashes panning out…

PSG v Arsenal

Arsene Wenger took a risk in terms of changing his team again at the weekend, which I didn’t think was necessary, and he got away with it.

Yes, they were fortunate against Southampton but they made the most of their luck and I thought one other positive was the way Shkodran Mustafi grew into the game.

Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud should come back in to give the side a more familiar feel but, for me, Granit Xhaka has to play on Tuesday. You pay £30m because he’s better than Francis Coquelin, not to put him on the bench.

PSG are not as good as they used to be when Zlatan Ibrahimovic was there. They drew their last game and lost to Monaco before that, so I’m confident Arsenal will score at least once and I fancy Theo Walcott to get on the scoresheet.

Charlie predicts: 1-1 and Walcott to score first (60/1 with Sky Bet)

Barcelona v Celtic

It’s a great game in terms of the occasion and Celtic rarely actually get hammered when they face Barcelona.

Celtic are a threat at set-pieces but I can’t see how many they’ll get and Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele aren’t experienced …

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