Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald has warned his players that Celtic will be approaching their match tonight in exactly the same manner as their Champions League clash at Manchester City.

Coming just three days after their creditable draw at the Etihad, you might expect that Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers would make changes to his side for tonight’s game.

But Archibald is under no illusions about the task his men face at Firhill this evening, no matter who is wearing the Hoops.

“I let the players watch them play Man City, and that’s the thing about how Brendan plays, whether it is Man City or Motherwell they approach the game in the same manner with the same tempo to their play,” Archibald said.

“That’s one thing we showed the players to make sure that they know they won’t come here taking it easy because it’s Partick Thistle.

“We know it will be the toughest challenge we face this season, they are in fine form, but we want to make it a battle and we want to make sure we use the home advantage as best we can.

“You take heart from the performance that Motherwell put in [against Celtic]. They caused them problems obviously and scored a few goals. We are at home as well, but we know what our levels have to be as well as our concentration, because we’ve gone out there and lost a goal after a minute or so before.

“We have to stay in the game and especially make sure we get a good start.”

Archibald has lost all 10 of his matches against Celtic as Thistle boss, but he doesn’t think that is down to any problems with his players’ mentality.

He rightly points out the difference in resources available to his Celtic Park counterpart, but that hasn’t dampened his belief that his men can pull off a shock tonight.

“The difference in budgets is there for all to see,” he said. “It makes it so, so tough.

“They’ve got a lot of quality in the side and I think the way that Brendan has strengthened typifies that.

“It’s testament to him how he is managing the squad. It’s always easy to when you’re winning games mind, they can chap your door all they want! If you haven’t won in six or seven then you might have a case to answer. He’s dealt with a big club before in Liverpool and is used to dealing with those situations.

“They probably have two teams that could win the league. He’s made changes in some games and in others he hasn’t, but we’ve just got to adapt to whatever they are doing.

“What you have seen is that they are all desperate to play, and you don’t seem to see many tantrums. They look like a collective unit, even the ones who step in.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re ready because it’s like-for-like in terms of the quality they are bringing in. It could be Leigh Griffiths coming in for Moussa Dembele or it might be both of them. We’ve just got to try and prepare the best we can and worry about ourselves as best we can.”

Archibald takes encouragement from the performance that Thistle put in against Rangers a couple of weeks ago, where they led until the closing minutes before lapses in concentration saw them lose the game. He recognises though that his men can’t afford to repeat that against a side who he sees as a level above the Ibrox outfit.

“It’s a learning curve,” he said. “You recognise that when you play against the good teams you’ve got to go for 90-plus minutes and you can’t stop.

“It was a good performance [against Rangers], it just missed that little bit at the end. If we get another performance like that we won’t be too far away hopefully.

“I think on this season Celtic are obviously top of the league by some way and haven’t lost a game yet, so we know they are a bit better in terms of their level.

“They played the other night, so hopefully that will go in our favour. We will wait and see what we have to face.”