If not for 6 goals in Celtic’s favour, we must admit there’s literally nothing to choose so far this season between Rangers and their eastern rivals.

Celtic started the season terribly, Rangers started it with no consistency. Celtic improved their act a bit but then got exposed in Holland, Rangers have been barely a rollercoaster and lacked much urgency over the piece.

So anyone who thinks Celtic are going to steam roller the home side is extremely misguided, and this one really is too close to call.

Celtic have rebuilt their side, but they’ve got a tonne of work to do and already don’t look obvious champion material. The goals conceded in Holland show how frail they are, and AZ, a side 15th btw in Eredivisie, slaughtered them on their own patch.

Rangers went to Armenia and slept through a match with next-to-no effort, which is not something we can accuse the greens of.

In short, Rangers are still a better team than Celtic, but aren’t putting in the hard miles to prove it, while Celtic are short on quality and defence, but are working much harder than Steven Gerrard’s side to overcome that.

If Rangers show up with full work ethic tomorrow, they have every chance of taking all three points, but shaming the shirt like they did on Thursday will not be acceptable and any side which works hard can beat this Rangers. Look at Utd.

Let’s put this season in perspective. There’s been 8 competitive matches, and three losses in there. 4 wins and a draw. It’s been average. But that Celtic have been no better is a big get out of jail card, and we’ve seen a worse SPL Rangers than this (aside the 2016-2020 period) more than once – PLG’s domestic Rangers was hopeless, and of course 89/90s Rangers started the season rock bottom after two matches. They turned it around, naturally.

But there is precedent for this level of bad start.

And Celtic don’t cause fear in our hearts given they’re not a lot better.

In summary, Celtic have the guts and heart that Rangers lack, plus a free scoring hitman, but they’re short for overall quality and their defence is comical. Rangers have the far superior squad, and historically a much better defence, but the effort has been lacking this season and the star striker’s form is hit and miss as is the backline’s.

It’s set up for a truly intriguing Old Firm.