Celtic face an early kick off on Saturday afternoon when they face Aberdeen at Pittodrie, in Sky's first SPL broadcast since they bought the rights from Setanta, and the Bhoys will be hoping to start the new campaign with a good performance against the Dons, but still they can't help thinking about next week's mouth-watering Champions League play off clash with Arsenal.
The game against Aberdeen will be the third competitive fixture that Celtic have played this season whilst Arsenal will only kick off their season in earnest when they face Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday. Scott McDonald was asked if Celtic's early European matches had given them a slight advantage over the Gunners. "We certainly hope that's the case," said 'Skippy'. "Arsenal will have a big game this weekend when they take on Everton, but we will have played a couple of games more than them by the time Tuesday night comes around."
"I think competitive games provide you with more of a cutting edge than the friendly fixtures." he added. "Hopefully, by playing the two difficult European ties against Dynamo Moscow, as well as what will be a difficult game at Pittodrie, it will stand us in good stead for the first leg against Arsenal. It would be nice to go into the second leg with something from Tuesday's game - a one-goal lead would be fantastic."
"We have an impressive record at home in Europe." said Celtic's number seven. "But that's the one thing about the Arsenal players, they will be used to that kind of atmosphere. However, the supporters can once again by our 12th man. We have a lot of talented footballers at this club and we have a lot of European experience as well. We know it is going to be tough but we are aiming to give it our best shot and trouble them as much as we can."
New boss Tony Mowbray will want to make a positive start to the new SPL campaign and he will make sure that thoughts of Arsenal are put to the back of the players' minds as they travel north. He will have his squad fully focused on the Pittodrie match and McDonald is relishing the return to action.
"I'm looking forward to the start of the league season," said the Australian international striker. "It will be good to get back out there and start our SPL campaign against Aberdeen tomorrow. We were obviously disappointed not to have won the league title at the end of last season and we are determined to try to win it back this season."
"If you win the league, you go away on your holidays on cloud nine." he said. "And it gives you that feelgood factor coming back for the start of pre-season training. When you don't, and I've had the experience of both now, it just makes you even hungrier to do better."
McDonald and Georgios Samaras scored the goals that disposed of Dinamo Moscow last week and the little forward was delighted to get off the mark so early in the season but knows that there are heavy demands on the front men at Celtic. Portly Huns forward Kris Boyd commented that any 'O** F***' striker should be looking to score at least 20 goals a season and Skippy wouldn't argue with that.
"I don't think saying an Old Firm striker should be looking to score at least 20 goals is a bold statement," he said. "It was a nice way to start by scoring in Moscow. I had to wait a bit longer than that for my first competitive goal last season so I'm pleased to have opened my account by scoring in Russia. But I'll be working hard to try to keep them coming, starting tomorrow up at Aberdeen and then hopefully against Arsenal."