Charlie Nicholas has made an unexpected prediction heading into next Sunday’s Celtic vs Rangers Glasgow Derby at Ibrox.
For someone who had a great 9-year Celtic career, including a legendary 48-goal season, Charlie Nicholas is not too popular among Celtic fans these days.
The former Celtic star currently works as a pundit and has made a number of comments regarding the club and its players that would not have gone down too well with the fans. Many will remember his bizarre comments regarding Odsonne Edouard’s celebrations earlier this season.
Even in a season as successful as this one, he has continued to find something wrong or the other with the club. But heading into this Sunday’s Glasgow Derby, he has something nice to say about the Hoops for a change.
Nicholas has picked his former side to get the better of their Glasgow rivals when they travel to Ibrox. As reported by the Daily Record he wrote in the Daily Express:
"“Rangers might be up for a fight but I also reckon Celtic will be prepared to battle their way to victory.“Celtic are tough, while Odsonne Edouard is a class act and Leigh Griffiths is scoring goals for fun. It’s hard for manager Neil Lennon to leave him out the starting XI.“The fact Rangers are also coming off the back of a tough Europa League game against Bayer Leverkusen, I’d back Celtic to come away with a win and widen the gap at the top of the table.”"
Judging on current form, there is nothing surprising about Nicholas’ prediction. Although the derby is expected to be a close affair and the Rangers have already shown that they go toe-to-toe with the reigning Champions of Scotland, Celtic are surely favourites. The surprising part is the fact that Nicholas has decided to go with the Hoops when he could have easily grabbed the headlines by picking their cross-city rivals.
Celtic currently sit 13 points ahead of Steven Gerrard’s side in the Premiership table, although they have played one game more than the Rangers. In fact at one point it had looked like the title race would go down to the wire after they managed to win their first game at Parkhead since 2010.
The wheels have completely fallen off since then though. Since their return from the winter break, Rangers have lost four times and currently find themselves out of the Scottish Cup and with a mountain to climb in the league. They’ll go into Sunday’s clash knowing that anything less than a win will spell the end of all their hopes for this season.