With both Old Firm sides dropping points at the weekend, this continues to be the closest title race in Scotland since the 2010-11 season when Walter Smith’s Rangers finished one point ahead of Neil Lennon’s Celtic. Now, only three points split the Glasgow sides going into the last 11 games of the season.
Both sides have bolstered their squads during the January transfer window, with major additions coming in for the pair. Rangers brought in the shocking addition of former Arsenal and Juventus man Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey’s career at Rangers hasn’t begun as he would have hoped however as the Welshman is currently carrying an injury, a flaw that has haunted the midfielder’s career.
Rangers also added the loan signing of Manchester United £40 million youngster, Amad Diallo. Although Diallo scored on his debut in a 3-3 draw up at Dingwall against Ross County, the Ivorian hasn’t really hit the heights that many were expecting thus far.
Celtic on the other hand have added three players that Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou knows very well during his time at the J-League in Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, and Yosuke Ideguchi. Maeda and Hatate have both hit the ground running at their start at Celtic, scoring crucial goals in big matches, Ideguchi however has rarely seen action due to his injury troubles.
Recent signings Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda, and Yosuke Ideguchi
The addition of English youngster Matt O’Reilly has also helped to improve Celtic’s midfield for the second half of the season. O’Reilly was flying high at MK Dons before his departure to Glasgow, with several other teams interested in the 21-year-old including Blackburn, Huddersfield, Venezia, and Anderlecht.
O’Reilly has linked up really well with the Celtic midfield and has had standout performances already during his short stint at the club.
Celtic youngster Matt O'Reilly. Source - Getty Images
The Premiership title has added stakes this year due to the prospect of automatic qualification for the Champions League which will include a cash injection of upwards of £30 million for whoever is crowned champions in May.
Every match for the remainder of the season will be a must-win for both sides of the Glasgow divide and there are still two more Glasgow derbies to played this season.
Celtic perhaps have the most momentum of the two as they have only dropped two points in the league since the winter break, whereas Rangers have dropped 11 of their last 24, which is far from the form of champions.
So, what has changed this last season for Rangers? The simple answer is that Rangers are starting to become careless defensively. Steven Gerrard’s Rangers last season were difficult to break down and rarely conceded sloppy goals. Whilst all the blame shouldn’t lie on Giovanni van Bronckhorst as the signs were starting to show when Gerrard was still at the helm, it seems very frequently that people are talking about some sort of mistake Rangers made at the back during their games.
This was evident during Rangers 3-3 draw to Ross County back in January when Ross County’s man Matthew Wright scored a 96th-minute winner. During that game, Rangers had 25 shots to Ross County’s five, which should have been enough to see them out, but it was their poor defending that caused them to drop two points.
Matthew Wright equaliser vs Rangers. Source - Getty Images
Celtic aren’t the greatest when it comes to defending either. They may be top of the league at the moment, but they are bottom when it comes to defending set-pieces. This has been a flaw in Celtic’s game for many years now, one which Brendan Rodgers, Neil Lennon, and now Ange Postecoglou are finding hard to rectify.
A study conducted by “Bhoys Analytics” revealed that Celtic have conceded the most goals in the league from set-pieces which rounded up to a total of 59% of all goals conceded in the league this season.
Not only that, but although they have scored the most goals this season, they have scored the third least in the league from set-pieces.
It is fair to say that set-pieces aren’t Celtic’s party piece but they seem to be getting the job done in front of goal otherwise.
Another factor to consider going into the final spell of the season, is the most recent Glasgow derby, in which Celtic steamrolled Rangers in a 3-0 victory with all goals coming in the first half.
New boy Reo Hatate scored two stunning goals, much to the delight of the Celtic fans and Liel Abada bagged his goal just two minutes after Hatate’s second. However, the lack of away fans at the first two Old Firm matches may have helped the respective home teams as it was a full stadium of support for the players.
Celtic 3-0 Rangers highlights
Going into the remainder of the Glasgow Derbies - this time with the likely re-addition of away fans – It could be a totally different ball game. Celtic have proved in the past that they could win at a packed Ibrox with ease during the Rodgers era, but Rangers have only won one derby match at a full Celtic Park in over ten years.
It will be interesting to see how both sets of teams handle the pressure and if they rise to the occasion.
Both sets of teams will have tough games for the remainder of the season and there are guaranteed to be plenty of twists and turns. Both Glasgow Derbies promise to be exhilarating affairs for both sets of fans and must-win games for the players, as they know it could be the difference between Scottish Premiership glory or failure in the most important season in recent memory.
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