Steven Gerrard sends title warning to Neil Lennon and Celtic

Steven Gerrard has sent a title warning to Neil Lennon and Celtic ahead of Rangers’ away trip to Edinburgh to take on Hibernian.

Celtic’s 2-0 win away at Hearts meant that Neil Lennon’s men went 5 points ahead of Rangers in the Premiership table. Although Steven Gerrard’s side have a game in hand, they will go into it knowing that anything but a win will see Celtic extend their lead at the top of the table.

Rangers will be travelling to Hibernian for a late Friday night kick-off. And the fact that they do not have a good record at Easter Road will surely be playing on their minds. They last won at the stadium in 2017 and have not managed to win any of their last 4 games there. But heading into the game, Steven Gerrard made a valiant statement while talking about his side’s title chances.

As reported by the Express, the Rangers manager said:

"“We are well aware of what happened at Tynecastle and we are well aware of the form of Celtic and what we need to do short, medium and long term.“All we need to focus on for now, though, is the short-term, which is trying to get three points against Hibs.“Then, come the end of the winter break, we must be in the best position as possible.“In an ideal situation we would have played midweek against Ross County and the TV wouldn’t have put us on Friday night, but we don’t make those decisions, so we have to roll with it.“We are well aware what needs to be done moving forward after the break, when the fixtures do become more favourable in terms of home matches.”"

He also talked about the belief that he has in the squad that he has assembled at Ibrox:

"“I always have confidence and belief in my team.“This group of players has decent experience now of how to deal with challenges.“The away ties in Europe, in particular, have helped to show them how we need to look when we’re away from home and the discipline we need to show.”"

Celtic have won eight straight Scottish League titles and are aiming to win a record-equaling ninth title. On the other hand, Rangers have emerged as genuine title challengers this season after their resurrection since the arrival of Gerrard. Both sides have lost only one game in the Premiership this season. But interestingly, Steven Gerrard’s have lost both of the derbies this season despite not having played at Celtic Park yet.

Thus, the gap between the two sides is quite clear. While the squad at Ibrox is impressive, they are not serial winners like Celtic. We witnessed the best example of this at Hampden Park earlier this season when the Hoops walked out with the Scottish League Cup despite playing arguably their worst game of the season. And at the end of the season, this might see them lift the Premiership title for the ninth straight time.