Rangers v Celtic: Ibrox derby offers first clues in title tussle

Rangers won both league meetings with Celtic at Ibrox last season

It's hard to recall when exactly Celtic fans started singing about their march to 10-in-a-row, but it seems like they've been at it for years, certainly before Brendan Rodgers' time and perhaps even before Ronny Deila's time, too.

There's been a presumption among vast parts of the support that the 10 is inevitable and unstoppable, that there's nothing that Rangers can do to halt it. The crack they've had with that. It's been relentless. In anticipating history being made, Celtic fans have been like folk waiting for the bells at New Year. You know the bells are coming and you know the party is really going to start when they do.

Both clubs had admirable victories on Thursday, but this Old Firm match on Sunday is a reminder of what is truly important to them right now. The Europa League is mere decoration when one club is desperate to edge ever closer to the holy grail of 10 and the other is busting every sinew in an attempt to make sure it doesn't happen.

It's massively parochial, but Europe's relevance takes a backseat until this domestic dogfight plays itself out.

'Rangers have given snapshots of their mettle'

Psychologically, the Celtic supporters are not prepared for this to end at eight or nine. That possibility started to dawn a little last season when Steven Gerrard's team beat them twice and finished nine points behind, having finished 12 points behind the season before and 39 points behind the season before that under different managers in what can be called the slapstick years at Ibrox.

Are we buying the idea of Rangers as genuine title contenders? This is when we get our first real form guide. What we can say is that last season Rangers dropped points in 15 league games. They were involved in seven league matches where there was only one goal in it at the end and they lost five of the seven. This season they have been involved in two league games where there was only one goal in it at the end and they won both of them.

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On Thursday against Legia Warsaw, they won another tight match. Where last season Rangers were vulnerable in the closing minutes of games, they now look to be strong. The Legia contest was the second time in a matter of weeks when they found a winner beyond the 90th minute.

These are just snapshots, small clues about the strength of their mettle. Sunday will be the biggest test. If they win, they don't just get a three-point lead at the top, they add to the anxiety across the city. The corollary is also true. If Celtic camouflage their defensive weakness and their dangerous attacking players dominate the day, then the Gerrard feelgood takes a big hit.

Unless it's a tame draw. Unlikely. It will be compelling.

The altering picture is a drama unto itself. In recent weeks, some Celtic fans have raised banners of protest about their board falling asleep at the wheel. In blogs and podcasts and on social media, there is a sense of worry that wasn't really there before, not about domestic affairs at any rate.

Celtic have lost big players and haven't really replaced them. They've lost a manager who took them to great heights on the home front and saw him replaced by a man who has split the support. All admire Neil Lennon. Far from all wanted him to replace Rodgers.

'Celtic had more firepower back then'

Celtic's 5-1 win at Ibrox in April 2017 was just one of several comfortable wins for the Parkhead side

For much of the first dozen Old Firm games of the Rodgers era, it wasn't a whistle the referee needed to bring on to the pitch at the beginning but a bell, ringing solemnly for a beleaguered team about to be done in cold blood.

Of those 12 matches, Celtic won 10 and drew two. They scored 31 goals and conceded six. Rodgers' team coursed their old rivals as a greyhound would a hare. In the blood sport, the hare could get away. Rangers rarely did. Celtic fans sang of '10-in-a-row' as if it was a greater certainty than the sun coming up the next morning.

On one occasion, Celtic put five on Rangers despite starting with Stuart Armstrong, Patrick Roberts and Callum McGregor on the bench. On another occasion, they put four on them despite having Roberts, Scott Sinclair, Leigh Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard held in reserve. That's what Celtic could do back then. They had firepower on the pitch and they had more firepower as back-up.

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In September 2016, Celtic hosted Pep Guardiola's Man City in a Champions League tie at Parkhead. City had played 10 and had won 10 going into the game, scoring 30 goals and conceding just six. Celtic became the first side to deny Guardiola victory as City manager, drawing 3-3.

Armstrong, McGregor, Roberts and Griffiths were among the Celtic replacements. Griffiths had scored 40 goals the season before and had eight goals in 10 games before that match. He got just six minutes that night. He wasn't needed, not when Moussa Dembele was in such coruscating form.

When they went to Ibrox in April 2017, James Forrest and Tom Rogic couldn't get in the team. Dembele was injured and played no part. Celtic still won 5-1. Those victories spoke to Celtic's overwhelming power.

At Ibrox, these were the years of Rob Kiernan and Philippe Senderos, Clint Hill and Myles Beerman, Russell Martin, Declan John and Danny Wilson. They had the Joey Bartons, the Niko Kranjcars, the Joe Dodoos, the Emerson Hyndmans. To their cast of characters they threw in player after player in a frantic and futile attempt to stop Celtic.

Bruno Alves, Fabio Cardoso, Gareth McAuley, Ovie Ejaria, Sean Goss, Dalcio, Lassana Coulibaly, Jason Cummings, Carlos Pena, Kyle Lafferty, Eduardo Herrera, Umar Sadiq, Aaron Nemane. On and on. Signing after signing, bad decision followed by bad decision.

'Rangers have backed up their talk'

Rangers won both Old Firm games at Ibrox last season

Since those days, Rangers' recruitment has improved massively, but that's not solely why we have arrived at this point, where the Old Firm hammerings appear to be things of the past.

Rangers have advanced under Gerrard's astute leadership and the financial backing he has received in doing an entire rebuild. While Gerrard was improving his team position by position and increasing his depth piece by piece, Celtic allowed themselves to slide back. Those two events happened simultaneously.

Of the set-up that delivered all those trebles for Celtic, Dembele and Kieran Tierney have been sold for a combined £44m. Mikael Lustig has moved on, so have Dedryck Boyata and Armstrong. Roberts' two-year loan spell passed. Sinclair is still at the club, but in body rather than spirit. He has hardly featured. Rogic has been injured for what seems like an age. Rodgers and his formidable assistant Chris Davies have gone to Leicester.

Celtic have missed out on the Champions League for two seasons in a row now, removed not by financial behemoths but by clubs they outspend. All of that will not be forgotten but it will be parked so long as the challenge from Ibrox is seen off and a ninth league title is delivered. There isn't a hole big enough for Lennon and chief executive Peter Lawwell to hide in if it's not.

Time was when Rangers trumpeted about going for 55 league titles and it was all just hot air, a bombast from a different era that crashed and burned in quick order. Now there is more going on. Rangers look a different beast. Their talk was backed up to an extent last season with two wins over Celtic at Ibrox. They weren't good enough to build on those victories but they seem to have added more steel in the summer.

We'll know more on Sunday not just about the size of Rangers' threat but the power of Celtic to deal with it.