Neil Lennon will tell his players to forget their recent derby heroics when they face Rangers today.
Celtic have taken all of the plaudits from two visits to Ibrox this year with a Georgios Samaras double giving them victory on January 2 followed by a fighting draw with 10 men in the Scottish Cup tie a fortnight ago.
Lennon’s side are available at 11/10 to win today with Rangers priced at 12/5. For fence sitters the draw is available at 12/5, the last time that the two sides drew with each other in the league was two years ago when Willo Flood made his Celtic debut.
Unlike many who like to claim that form goes out the window in Celtic-Rangers matches they do generally run to form. Where one team is strong favourites the games tend to be tight with the more evenly balanced matches turning into two or three goal winning margin either way.
A fortnight ago at Ibrox Jamie Ness opened the scoring followed onto the scoresheet by Kris Commons, Steven Whittaker and Scott Brown which would have pleased the bookies who took a pile of bets on Gary Hooper, Anthony Stokes and Nikica Jelavic scoring.
Hooper looks the most likely Celtic scorer and is priced at 13/10 to score at anytime. With memories of midfielders Ness, Brown and Commons scoring a fortnight ago Biram Kayal and Joe Ledley at 9/2 look worth following with Ki Sung-Yeung ahead of them at 4/1 with bet365.
Whether Lennon decides to go with two forwards will be revealed at 11.30 with the Celtic boss not afraid of making big decisions in this fixture.
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Charlie Mulgrew and Samaras were surprise selections on January 2 with on-form Stokes making way for Ki at Ibrox a fortnight ago.
The Celtic boss has had a full week to weigh up his selection for today and won’t pay too much attention to the two recent visits to Ibrox.
“Every Old Firm game is different,” Lennon explained. “Regardless of what happened in the cup game a fortnight ago this one will be totally different.
“We’ll take the positives from the game but we won’t be kidded on by anything. It could be different personnel that Rangers play and we can change it as well.
“Rangers are a good team, they are the champions, they are very difficult to beat and have a good mentality about them.
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“Nikica Jelavic is someone that we have to keep an eye on, he’s a good player and we know about him from playing Rapid Vienna last season. He’s came through his injury, he got a hat-trick last weekend and players like Naismith and Davis can hurt any opposition.
“Every time we play against Rangers we learn more about them, we know their strengths and try to exploit their weaknesses.
“I don’t think this result will define the outcome of the championship but we’re getting down to the remnants of the season with 13 games left.
“Psychologically it’s a big game for whoever wins it, we’re playing very well, we’re confident but we’re not taking anything for granted
“We know that Rangers are a formidable team but it’s a game that the players are looking forward to.”
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