Patrick Roberts living up to the hype says Stuart Armstrong
Stuart Armstrong claims Patrick Roberts is living up to the hype as the clamour from Celtic fans to see the 19-year-old in action intensifies.
The England youth player has shone in a couple of development league games for the Hoops since signing an 18-month loan deal from Manchester City and assistant manager John Collins claimed he was getting closer to a first-team debut ahead of the visit of Inverness in the Ladbrokes Premiership on Saturday,
Asked about Roberts, who joined City from Fulham, Armstrong said: "Yeah, I think he's very talented and you see that in training.
"I've not seen the development games but I've been hearing very good things. He's scored a few goals as well so I think the hype is deserved."
Inverness travel on the back of a morale-boosting home win over Aberdeen on Monday night, which dented the title hopes of the second-placed Dons.
"I saw clips of the Aberdeen game," Armstrong said.
"It's good they held on to Greg Tansey as I think he's a very good player.
"But they are a good footballing team and it's always difficult. To get the three points you've got to earn it."
Celtic boss Ronny Deila has no fresh injuries for the visit of Inverness.
Jozo Simunovic remains out for another four or five weeks with a knee injury.
Fellow defender Saidy Janko has recovered from an ankle operation and will join in football training on Monday.
Inverness might be fresh from victory over Aberdeen but manager John Hughes knows repeating the feat against Celtic will be a big ask.
Caley Thistle made it seven points from three games against the Dons this season when they beat them 3-1 on Monday, but their recent record at Parkhead is not so impressive - they have lost 21 goals in their last five visits.
Hughes said: "We're confident. It was a good result for us the other night. But it's Celtic at Celtic Park. It was Aberdeen at Inverness, a whole different ball game.
"Sometimes when you go there you need a little bit of luck, you need to have a real strength of character and a real belief in one another.
"You need to have a strong referee because it's an intimidating arena. And that's the same for the players, you cannot let that arena intimidate you, it has to inspire you, and hopefully that will be the case."
Deila has come under recent criticism but Hughes believes the Norwegian deserves credit.
"What I will say is, I think Ronny is doing a wonderful job. They've got wonderful footballers, they recruit very well. And on their game, as we saw against Hamilton a few weeks ago, they can really hurt you.
"We have to give them respect but we have to go and play our game and take the game to them. If we do that and carry a little bit of luck then you never know."
Hughes also believes Deila deserves some leeway following the summer departures of Virgil van Dijk and Jason Denayer.
Hughes said: "They are never going to be the defensive team they were last season because they are never going to replace the two guys they had in Van Dijk and Denayer. Never.
"They formed a partnership but individually they were quick and strong, they could pass it. They started every attack for them."
Inverness still have several injury problems ahead of their clash at Celtic Park.
Club captain Richie Foran (calf) remains out while Alex Fisher (ankle), Josh Meekings and James Vincent (both knee) are unlikely to return for the Parkhead encounter.
Long-term absentee Aaron Doran (knee) is still out but goalkeeper Dean Brill is closing in on a return from his knee injury.
Source: PAR
