Wenger and AVB Name Their Dark Horse In Champions League Race

Both Arsene Wenger and Andre Villas-Boas have spoken highly of an invigorated Juventus side who are intent on returning to their Champions League winning ways.

After being caught up in Italy's match-fixing scandals in 2006 the Old Lady has been left without top seeding despite being a force to be reckoned with throughout Europe in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Last season they were beaten convincingly by Bayern Munich 4-0 on aggregate in the quarter finals, but their matches leading up to those games showed signs that the good times could soon return.

Juventus were able to finish top of their group and thrashed Celtic in the last 16. With the summer acquisition of Carlos Tevez, who has scored in both of their Serie A games so far this season, they could have found the firepower necessary to be the unexpected success of the 2013/14 campaign.

Wenger believes that the Italian outfit could in fact be quite intimidating for every other team in the Champions League this season, telling Tuttosport: "Juventus should not be considered a surprise. They are a team of rank, they are already well established in terms of performances, squad, club's organisation and staff.

"We are talking about a really solid team who are amongst the group of favourites.

"I don't agree with those who claim that Italian clubs are behind the rest in Europe. There is no gap - Milan and Napoli should also not be taken lightly."

Every season has that dark-horse who surprises everyone with their ability to keep winning the seemingly unwinnable matches; in 2011-12, Chelsea came past a Barcelona side who were supposedly destined to win another Champions League trophy and broke the English sides' curse with penalties to defeat Bayern Munich in the final and lift that trophy themselves.

Andre Villas-Boas was the manager who began Chelsea's eventually successful Champions League campaign, and the manager believes that Juventus have a very similar potential to achieve what his former club did.

"Juve have the cards at their disposal to emulate what Chelsea did in 2012," he explained. "The Italian champions are a solid, tough and compact side. And with CarlosTevez they have the icing on the cake.

"Perhaps Tevez could become what Didier Drogba was at Chelsea - and he has what is needed to do that."