Philippe Clement’s Rangers defense of title collapse crumbles as the awful truth about Celtic stats exposes.

Philippe Clement’s Rangers defense of title collapse crumbles as the awful truth about Celtic stats exposes.

 

Philippe Clement has seen one critical stat supporting Rangers that the manager has frequently used to defend his record crumble following the draw with Hearts. The stalemate at Tynecastle brought an end to a disastrous Scottish Premiership season, while Celtic celebrated in Glasgow’s east end by defeating St Mirren and lifting the title to cap it off. While Brendan Rodgers’ side had already been crowned champions after a midweek victory over Kilmarnock, the final day results left Rangers eight points behind Celtic.

 

And it eliminates one line Clement had frequently used, with the Belgian pointing out that the margin was narrower than when he took over in the dugout from Michael Beale after a brief interim period in the dugout under Steven Davis. When Beale was fired, Celtic had a seven-point lead at the summit.

 

Going into the clash with Celtic at Ibrox than ended in a 3-3 thriller Clement was keen to point out that he had inherited a Rangers team trailing Celtic by seven points in October. He said: “We’re really close by showing our level to close this gap of seven points – it would be amazing, what nobody expected six months ago.”

 

Celtic had 51 points, Rangers 43. The Belgian would convert Ibrox fans into title believers as Rangers overcame an 11-point deficit to lead by two points at the end of February. However, defeat to Motherwell in March would prove to be a watershed moment. Stuart Kettlewell’s team would record a stunning 2-1 victory at Ibrox, and while Celtic would lose to Hearts 24 hours later and fail to leapfrog their rivals, it triggered a catastrophic collapse for the Light Blues.

 

 

After Celtic were officially named league champions, Clement repeated the statistic: “Even with two losses and a draw (against Celtic), I believe we have one point more in the last six months than Celtic.” No. There isn’t a large gap.” And, before the final game of the season, he relied on statistics to defend his record, adding, “I’m disappointed because I want to win everything so you can become champion. But, in the end, we started seven points behind Celtic on the first day we entered the building and were unable to close that distance during that time. We took one more point in that session, but it wasn’t enough.

 

But the stats make grim reading for the Rangers boss now the curtain has come down on the league season – with the scale of the collapse in the title run-in becoming clear. After losing their first derby of the season, Rangers were nine points behind in mid-January, having lost to Celtic at Parkhead in December when the league emerged from the winter break.

 

With Rangers leading after 29 games, Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic side went unbeaten in the final ten games of the season, surrendering only five points. Clement’s men would go on to drop a stunning 15 points, handing their opponents the title.

 

 

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