The gap at the top of the table might not have changed at the weekend but Rangers comfortable win against Hearts and Celtic’s struggle against Motherwell tells a story.
Steven Naismith’s side were one of the form teams in Europe when he brought them to Ibrox, however, Philippe Clement masterminded another impressive display despite his squad being hit by a string of injuries.
Momentum is everything at this stage of the season with Heart and Hand’s David Edgar summing up what must be the thoughts of many Rangers fans as they go toe-to-toe with Celtic in what is sure to be a thrilling title race.
Rangers looking to apply the pressure on Celtic
Gers boss Clement couldn’t have asked for a better performance against Hearts.
Not only did we dominate possession, but we also restricted them too with Jack Butland only having a couple of saves to make.
What was even more positive was, for once, we weren’t wasting chances.
Our finishing matched the quality of the build-up play with Oscar Cortes, Mohamed Diomande and Fabio Silva, in particular, scoring well taken goals.
Across the city, they didn’t have it quite so easy, but they were helped by some appaling defending from Motherwell.
Two centre-halves ignoring the 6ft 3inch striker who did nothing other than wait for the cross – no wonder Stuart Kettlewell wasn’t happy.
It is the latest in a pattern of results though which saw Edgar in bullish mood:
“I’ll be honest folks, haven’t seen anything this weekend that makes me any less confident we’ll win the league.”
Rangers were without Abdallah Sima, Danilo, Todd Cantwell and Rabbi Matondo in terms of the forward line and yet we still produced a top performance against the country’s form team.
Celtic, on the other hand, were at full strength and were deservedly 1-0 down at half-time against a team that has struggled for most of the season.
Edgar is right, Philippe Clement’s philosphy is focussed purely on what Rangers do and maintaining the intensity that we have seen in recent weeks, Celtic, meanwhile, are changing system every week hoping that something sticks.
Nothing is won yet, but we know only too well what happens when you aren’t playing well and picking up wins, your luck runs out eventually.
