‘By the looks of it…’ – O’Neill makes Rangers-Celtic title prediction after Gers win Old Firm
Former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill has claimed that the Bhoys will still win the Scottish Premiership despite defeat by Rangers in the first Old Firm of the season.
A Connor Goldson brace guided Rangers to a second successive away victory against the Hoops on Saturday, giving the Gers a huge boost in the title race.
But, speaking to the Scottish Sun, O’Neill said the Hoops will still win the title because Celtic at their strongest are still better than Rangers.
He said, “By the looks of it, Rangers have been good this season at winning games they weren’t winning in the last few years. They have been able to stick at it and show some durability.
“But there is a long way to go this season. Rangers have piled pressure on Celtic, and it’s up to them to keep that going, not to drift off like they did last year. Do I think Celtic will win the league? At their strongest, they are still better than Rangers, so I believe they will do it.”
O’Neill was backing up current Celtic manager Neil Lennon who has come in for some criticism following the Old Firm loss to the Gers, while also alluding to the fact that Celtic weren’t at full strength last weekend and those missing key players contributed to the loss.
In truth, Rangers were simply the better side and on another day they could have scored another two or three against a Celtic side who didn’t register a shot on target across the 90 minutes.
Celtic were missing key players but that doesn’t justify the poor performance that was offered up by the Hoops players who did take to the field. This was perhaps a biased view on Celtic’s situation by O’Neill who forgot to mention that Rangers had players missing as well.
Alfredo Morelos wasn’t at his best after having little time to rest between international duty and the Old Firm and the Gers have been missing Joe Aribo for a number of weeks, a player who slots straight back into the Ibrox midfield when he’s fully fit.
There is a long way to go in this season’s title race and either side could still win it, but it is slightly odd to claim that Rangers are weaker than their Glasgow rivals despite just beating them and sitting above them in the table.
In other Rangers news, Kenny Miller claims Rangers were handed the upper hand hours before Celtic win.