Kris Boyd expects Celtic to challenge Rangers for the title this season
Rangers suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Dundee United on Saturday, while Celtic cruised to a 6-0 victory over Dundee the next day, and Kris Boyd is expecting a race.
The Sky Sports pundit had predicted that the Light Blues would stroll to the title this season after blowing the Hoops completely out of the water in the Scottish Premiership race last season.
However, the weekend’s performance from Celtic has seen Boyd change his mind, insisting the Parkhead side have made a statement with their emphatic win.
Asked on Sky Sports whether he is concerned about Rangers’ chances of retaining the title after what he saw at the weekend, the former Light Blues hitman replied (via the Daily Record): “You’re putting me on the spot here!”
“Celtic are going to need their players to step up. They’ve been criticised, and rightly so. Even their own fans have been criticising them. But yesterday was a statement that they are still here, and they will challenge Rangers.
“But, it’s early doors. If that team gels together, and that Rangers team gets back to the levels it was showing last season, then we’ve got an exciting title race on.”
Too soon
We expected everyone to have something to say about the title race after those results, but it is too soon to jump to conclusions after two games into the season.
Narrowly losing a 40-game unbeaten run made Celtic fans glad as they would not have been able to stomach it if we had managed to go another Premiership campaign without a defeat.
Admittedly, they have done some pretty decent businesses in the transfer window this summer, but they are still not in any way close to us.
Rangers remain the team to beat in Scotland, not Celtic, and weekend’s results do not change much.
The Hoops will be hoping we fail to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League like they have done, and that is one of the reasons why we cannot afford to be eliminated by Malmo on Tuesday night.
Manager Steven Gerrard and his men need to get everything right and book a place in the play-offs and advance further.
The Old Firm games this season are definitely going to get more attention than ever, and nobody should be surprised if the Light Blues come out on top again.
One defeat is nothing to worry about.
In other Rangers news, Light Blues 24-year-old boasts PL-level ability in two key areas.