Former Celtic man Craig Beattie has questioned whether his former club has the bottle to win the Scottish Premiership this season, as their fierce rivals continue to keep up with the rapid pace at the top.
Beattie was recently talking to Sky Sports about the tussle at the top of the table in Scotland.
He said: “I discussed this yesterday with a very well-known journalist, who said ‘It will be interesting to see if Rangers have got the bottle with three or four games to go… if they’re in contention, will they have the bottle to stand up to potentially winning the league?’
“I flipped the question on him and said ‘How do we know that Celtic have got the bottle?’, because with three or four games to go, nobody has been challenging them of late.
“I get what he is saying from a Rangers perspective but from a Celtic perspective, they’ve been runaway winners for however many years now.”
The tightest chase in ages
The Bhoys have won the Scottish Premiership title for 50 times in their storied history. They have won the title consecutively in the last eight years, achieving the feat this past season under Neil Lennon too (Guardian).
This is Lennon’s first full season back in Glasgow since he took over from Brendan Rodgers in February earlier this year.
So far this season, Old Firm rivals Rangers are very much neck and neck with Celtic. Steven Gerrard’s men find themselves at second in the table. But they are only behind in the league on goal difference. While Lennon’s side have a goal difference of 28, Gerrard’s side have their tally at 27.
Last season, Rangers finished as many as nine points behind their fierce rivals, but this season gives the impression that the chase could well be much closer than it has ever been since 2011.
TIF Tactics
As things stand, both clubs have the same tally in the league when it comes to losses, wins and draws. Both have won ten games, losing and drawing one game each. The difference lies in how Celtic have scored just one goal more than Rangers.
But with both sides playing European football – and likely to go into the knockout stages – it will be a very interesting run into the last few months of the season. It will be a test as to which team has more depth and which manager can swap first and second teams better than the other.
The way it is shaping up, it could be one of the most entertaining title chases in recent times.