Steve McManaman has named defending champions PSG and Spanish giants Barcelona as his two favourites to win this season's Champions League, snubbing last year's finalists Arsenal in the process.
Arsenal continued their perfect start to the season with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Serie A side Napoli on Wednesday night. Martin Odegaard, who scored at the weekend against Chelsea, continued his rich vein of goalscoring form by netting the winner in Naples in the 75th minute. The Gunners enjoyed a memorable run to the final last season before suffering a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat to back-to-back winners PSG.
McManaman's Champions League favourites
Speaking on TNT Sports, the two-time Champions League winner said: 'PSG are favourites of course because they've won it the last two years.'
'I think Barcelona are very strong, they've been excellent in La Liga. They look as if they're going to score every time they go forward and they've got six forwards at the moment, which helps them. They're up there certainly, they've improved from last year so they'll be close.'
PSG got their defence underway with a comfortable 6-1 win over Slovan Bratislava, while Barcelona looked equally impressive in their 5-1 victory over Feyenoord.
Arsenal's strong start
After another summer of impressive recruitment, Mikel Arteta's side will expect to reach the latter stages of the competition once again this time around. The Gunners beat Chelsea at the weekend and have maintained a perfect record in all competitions so far.
Elsewhere, Liverpool picked up their first European victory under Andoni Iraola with a 2-1 comeback victory over Atletico Madrid. Bradley Barcola made his first start since his big-money move from PSG, but McManaman doesn't believe the Frenchman's arrival will automatically turn Liverpool into Champions League contenders.
McManaman on Liverpool's chances
'I think he makes them better, he's shown what he can do in a PSG shirt and won the Champions League a couple of times, so we know he's got experience,' McManaman added. 'I think he can make Liverpool's starting XI better but whether that makes them anywhere close to favourites I would probably doubt.'
'I think it's a transitional year for Liverpool, and I think there will be a few ups and downs a bit like last year. I hope they improve on where they finished last year, but I don't expect them to be challenging on all fronts.'
'I would have preferred them to have added a few more bodies into this side just to bulk up the squad with a little bit more experience, so I'm off that fence of hoping they qualify for the Champions League and have a good run domestically, I'd like them to really challenge for trophies in this country.'
