Michael Beale has a mountain to climb following his appointment as the Rangers manager, as Celtic are nine points ahead of the Ibrox club in the Premiership title race as things stand. That can work in his favour at the same time though, as expectations are low and this campaign might very well be a free-hit for Steven Gerrard’s former assistant coach.
Beale has made a decent start results-wise for the Rangers, having won all three of the games till now. The same cannot be said about their performances though, which have been shaky at best.
On the other hand, Celtic have not looked at their very best after the World Cup break either, but just like their Glasgow rivals, they have won all three matches since their return to action as well. And the previous one was a decent 4-1 win over an in-form St Johnstone.
The results mean that Celtic have succeeded in maintaining their nine point lead at the top of the table but Beale seems to have an interesting take on that. As reported by The Scotsman, the Rangers manager said:
"“The difference is nine points but we’ve only played each other once and they won that game, deservedly. So the difference should be three points, shouldn’t it? It should.“So we are six points behind against the other teams in the league, the other 10 that we play. That is the disappointing thing.”"
Rangers boss makes bizarre claim about Celtic’s nine point lead at the top of the table
It is safe to say that the season does not revolve around the four games between the two Glasgow sides and the league is played over 38 matches.
No matter which way Beale wants to look at it, at the end of the day, the Rangers are nine points behind Celtic in the title race.
Or otherwise, one can also say that the Rangers have a one hundred per cent losing record against Celtic this season till now. That might be another way to look at it.
The two sides will meet each other early next year but before that Celtic have an important away game against Hibernian, which they cannot make the mistake of taking lightly.