Rangers broke their post-winter break hoodoo with a convincing 3-0 victory over Hibs to cut the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership to five points.
Goals from Ridvan Yilmaz, Todd Cantwell, and Cyriel Dessers secured what was by-and-large a run-of-the-mill victory against a poor Hibs side.
Rangers dominated the bulk of proceedings with the scoreline really flattering Hibs, who only mustered a couple of chances at Easter Road, albeit Jack Butland making a crucial second half stop.
Here are five big talking points from the game as Rangers and Phillipe Clement restart their Scottish Premiership title tilt with an important win.
Ridvan Yilmaz shines amid transfer interest
Ridvan Yilmaz has been the subject of heavy transfer reporting in the January window after what’s been a largely ineffectual 18 months in Glasgow.
But over the last few matches the young Turkish international, 22, has really begun to find his stride in a Rangers jersey.
Opening the scoring here with an emphatic first-half finish, Ridvan Yilmaz latched onto a superb dinked ball from John Lundstram to leave David Marshall with no chance.
This exemplified a tireless display from the diminutive left-back, who was arguably the best player on the park, especially in the first half.
Galatasaray continue to be linked but as things stand, Rangers would probably do well to keep a hold of the emerging left-back talent.
Rangers Todd Cantwell enigma exemplified v Hibs
Todd Cantwell hasn’t been short of criticism from Rangers fans this season and if you’d glanced on social media in the first half, you’d have seen plenty of it aimed at the playmaker.
In what was a disjointed opening period for Rangers – slack passes and a bit of post-winter break rustiness very much evident – Cantwell struggled to properly impact the game.
But – almost exactly one year on from when he joined Rangers – Cantwell stepped up with a late first-half rocket to put the game seemingly beyond Hibs’ reach.
It was a stunning effort and exemplifies exactly why the Rangers supporters demand so much of the midfielder.
A talented player with the ability to turn games – it’s just time for the 25-year-old to start taking such responsibility more consistently.
Rangers January business reality check
Speaking of Rangers’ transfer business, there’s been a lot said about the club’s need for attacking reinforcements.
The Gers are without striker pair Kemar Roofe and Danilo for the bulk of the season, whilst 15-goal attacker Abdallah Sima has also been ruled out for up to three months.
But Rangers’ frontline showed its credentials in this match with Rabbi Matondo showing flashes of his creative abilities and Fabio Silva – if not still finding his feet – impressing in moments in Edinburgh.
Throw in Cyriel Dessers’ 11th goal of the season and suddenly there are more options at the top end of the park than the chatter would have you believe.
Whilst we still expect Rangers to add in the window, there’s confidence growing amongst what’s left of the club’s previously berated striking options.
Injury Gods take with one hand, give with another
With Rangers now set to be without over £20m of talent for the foreseeable future, the long-running Ibrox injury joke continues to raise few laughs.
Ben Davies, Kieran Dowell, Abdallah Sima, Danilo and Kemar Roofe all face extended stints on the sidelines with as of yet no defined return date.
But there has been some progress for Rangers and this was evident against Hibs.
Rabbi Matondo is back and tasked with plugging the Abdallah Sima gap, John Souttar played 90 minutes, Ridvan Yilmaz is Ridvan Yilmaz’ing, and several others came off the bench.
Tom Lawrence, Ryan Jack, Dujon Stirling and Scott Wright have all had issues as of late and got minutes in the capital.
But as is so often the case with Rangers, the football Gods give with one hand and take with the other, as fans await news on Todd Cantwell – who appeared to pull his groin before scoring – and Nicolas Raskin after both players were hooked at half-time.
Winter blues banished in Scottish Premiership title race?
Rangers have had some post-winter break shockers over the years but there was no sign of any such stutter against Hibs.
Whilst there’s still enough time to fall back into the trap of January complacency, this was an assured Rangers performance from a team who mean business.
Philippe Clement won’t let standards slip and with the victory the club go within five points of the Premiership summit with a game in hand on leaders Celtic.
This was the trickier of the club’s two spare fixtures, going away to Easter Road, with St Johnstone at home on Valentine’s Day the other match which is still outstanding.
If Rangers can keep the momentum going heading into the weekend’s trip to St Mirren, perhaps this is the year the title race really does go down to the wire.
