Michael Stewart doesn’t anticipate another Demolition Derby on Saturday but he can’t see past a home win to send Celtic 12 points clear in the race for the SPFL title.
Back in September Giovanni van Bronckhorst watched his side lose 4-0 in the fixture- sending them into a disastrous Champions League campaign that brought his reign to an end barely a year after taking over.
Arguably the Dutchman never recovered from a 3-0 defeat to Celtic last February, that result sent Ange Postecoglou’s side to the top of the SPFL where they have remained ever since.
Micky Beale has to stop that run but he goes into the fixture having got the big decisions badly wrong in the final of the Viaplay Cup at Hampden in February.
Celtic won the first trophy of the season despite being short of their best, if they can recapture some of the form shown in September the new Ibrox boss will have to come up with some special answers.
Stewart has watched both sides closely all season, last night on Sportscene he admitted that he can only see one winner with the Daily Record reporting the former Hearts midfielder saying:
Rangers are a different beast from the last game at Celtic Park. Michael Beale’s come in and steadied the ship, he’s making progress with them, but Celtic are the ballpark.
When you compare the two, the intensity that Celtic play at is the difference. Rangers don’t have that for me. The one criticism of Michael Beale’s team is they’ve been getting results, but the intensity hasn’t been there.
When you look at the players they’ve got, the likes of Cantwell and Tillman aren’t intense players. And when they come up against the likes of Hatate, McGregor, Mooy or whoever, those sorts of players get the upper hand when you go like-for-like.
Look at the cup final, the first goal came down that side where Tillman was playing. Overloads, players at the back of him, those fine margins are the difference. And I just think Celtic have that margin of a difference over Rangers, particularly at home.
Will it be a 4-0? I’d be surprised, but I’d be even more surprised if Rangers were coming away with a victory.
Celtic go into the match with 29 wins and one draw from 31 matches, giving them a nine point lead and goal difference advantage of plus 27.