It would be an understatement to say that the Rangers are in a tough spot right now. They have fallen 11 points behind Celtic in the league after their draw against Dundee United at the weekend. At this point, their only hope of getting back into the league title race is a bad run of form from Brendan Rodgers' side.
Philippe Clement remains in charge of the Rangers. Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Mick Beale were shown the exit door despite being in better positions.
At the moment, it just does not look like the Rangers are capable of catching up with Celtic. Of course, that does not mean that they have given up hope. Or at the very least, are not willing to admit it.
The latest to try and provide some hope to the Rangers fans is Jack Butland. As reported by STV News, when asked if he still believed his team were in a title race, the goalkeeper said:
"People might not think that. You won’t catch us not thinking that.
"The reality, we know what it looks like. We know we need to perform better if we want to be in a title race.
“By no means are we out of it, but we’ve given ourselves way too much to do at this point.
“We need to start closing that gap and performances like that aren’t going to help us."
Jack Butland makes bold claim as Celtic take 11-point lead over Rangers
That sounds like a lot of optimism mixed with a bit of reality. The fact of the matter is that the Rangers will need to hope for a miracle if they are to have any hope of getting back in the league title race.
That does not mean that it is impossible. Last season, we did see Celtic throw away a pretty significant early season lead to fall behind the Rangers, only to pull it back and win the league in the end.
So, Celtic cannot make the mistake of getting complacent. It is important to remember that this is still November and there is a long way to go in the title race. A few bad games here and there, and things will start to look a lot tighter than they do now and then, the pressure will be on Rodgers' side to defend their lead and the league.