This week will see a decision made in the highly competitive Scottish Premiership title battle, with Celtic looking like the clear favorites to win the championship for a record third time.
With two games left in the league season, Celtic leads Rangers by seven goals and six points at the top of the standings after their 2-1 victory in the Old Firm derby on Saturday.
That implies that Celtic only needs one more point to win the championship, or for Rangers to make a mistake.
Rangers must, however, pray that Celtic loses both of their remaining games and that they win theirs in order to reverse the goal differential.
Stranger things have happened, but it seems inevitable that on the last day of the season, Brendan Rodgers’ team would hoist the league championship trophy.
When the Rangers meet Dundee at Ibrox on Tuesday night, confirmation could be forthcoming. Eleven members of Philippe Clement’s first team are absent for the encounter with a team that is still very much outside the running for European qualifying.
Rangers will not be able to defeat the Tayside lads, and Celtic will be declared champions without even having to kick a ball.
Should Rangers triumph and reduce Celtic’s lead to three points, the championship race will be prolonged by a minimum of twenty-four hours.
After then, it would be up to Celtic to win the trophy on their own by doing something they haven’t been able to achieve on their two previous trips to Rugby Park this season: they would need to avoid losing. They suffered defeats of 2-1 in the league in December and 1-0 in the League Cup in August. As recently as February, they were beaten to a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park, and in October, they triumphed 3-1 at home to record their lone victory over Derek McInnes’ team in four outings this season.
Rangers would have a slim chance of winning if Celtic were to suffer a setback on the synthetic surface, but a draw in East Ayrshire would be sufficient for them to secure their 12th championship in 13 seasons. Rangers visit Hearts, while Celtic close the season at home against St Mirren. Both games begin at 12.30 p.m. on Saturday. The question then would be whether Celtic could maintain composure in front of a sell-out home crowd.
With the way the Hoops have been playing lately, you wouldn’t bet against them finishing things off as soon as possible—or even the chance that Rangers will give it to them straight away.
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