Celtic: Ronny Deila confident his side will secure title glory

Manager Ronny Deila is hoping to lead Celtic to their fourth title on the spin

Manager Ronny Deila expects Celtic to win the Scottish Premiership title, despite their patchy early-season form.

The champions are fourth in the table after playing six games, having lost to Inverness and drawn with Dundee and Motherwell.

"We are going to win the league, that's our task and everyone knows that," Deila said.

Celtic are five points adrift of league-leaders Dundee United, but have a game in hand over the Tangerines.

They are chasing their fourth successive Scottish top flight title.

And ahead of his side's meeting with St Mirren in Paisley on Saturday, Deila says there is no sense of panic in the Celtic ranks.

"If you take away the game in Inverness, when we made a lot of changes, we've had some good wins, we beat Aberdeen and Dundee United.

"We want to have more consistency in the team [selection] and that will make the players safer and the play will be quicker and better."

And when asked if Celtic's Premiership rivals will see this as a good time to take on the champions, the 39-year-old former Stromsgodset said: "If they think that, they have to do it.

"We know how good we are when we are on top form. When we are performing at 100% it is very hard to beat us."

Deila took over from Neil Lennon in the summer and while he knows there is work to be done to mould the side further, he can see signs that his work on the training ground is starting to pay off.

"I'm not pleased, I want even more and I think during the season we will progress and progress, and the fans will be happy," he said.

"In the offensive play we need to work to get even better relationships and get better tempo in the play, but we are progressing now."