When Philippe Clement took over as Rangers manager he had to hope that our city rivals would suffer some sort of dip in form.
What the Gers boss also had to do was make sure that he kept up his end of the bargain, got Ibrox believing again and squeezed every last bit out of talent out of a squad that had been battered from pillar to post.
So far it’s working, whilst Brendan Rodgers is struggling to find anything that works consistently with his side, Phillipe Clement has instilled a style of play at Rangers that has seen fans inspired.
Philippe Clement must ignore the Rangers quality noise
And yet….
According to some elements of the Scottish media, you’ll hear more about Celtic not playing well, having injuries to key players and that Rangers “aren’t a good team” – as perfectly demonstrated by their former player, Mark Wilson, speaking to Sky Sports and Frank McAvennie too.
Since October, Clement has lost just one game, won a trophy and topped our Europa League group.
We are scoring more goals, creating more chances and conceding fewer of both in the process too as these graphs from data analyst Andrew Caskie show.
This is the very definition of a good team.
Yes, there is still a long way to go in the title race, but, if we weren’t a good team, we wouldn’t have closed the gap.
It’s not like it’s been a few points either, Rangers were double digits behind and had to overcome a congested fixture schedule and a critical injury list to win their games in hand.
They also had to avoid any unnecessary slip ups too to keep the pressure on at the top.
If you are sitting at the top of the table, you are – by default – a good team.
Even if it is said through gritted teeth, winning every week doesn’t happen by accident nor does seeing a nine point swing in less than four months.
If Celtic-minded pundits and fans alike want to write Rangers off, it won’t bother Philippe Clement.
All he is thinking about is the next game, the next 90 minutes and the next three points.
He’ll leave the talking to those whose opinions don’t matter.
