FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED . . .

1 Rangers made of sterner stuff. By the stats, Steven Gerrard has presided over the Ibrox club’s worst start to a league campaign since 1989/90, claiming a five-point haul from the opening 12 available which even he accepts is disappointing. There is huge mitigation, though, in the club’s Europa League exploits and there was further evidence yesterday of their new-found defensive stability. While Celtic dominated and hit the woodwork four times, Rangers defended well and reacted after going behind. 2 McGregor lucky to stay on. Without Scotland’s in-form keeper, the tally in yesterday’s match would have been far greater. And the Ibrox side nearly had to do without him. Taking Kristoffer Ajer’s presence in his six-yard box as an open invitation to kick out at him, the keeper could well have been dismissed if referee Willie Collum had seen the incident.

3 Keeping Ntcham was masterstroke. Amid all the furore about Celtic’s sale of Moussa Dembele to Lyon, the fact they managed to keep hold of Olivier Ntcham

in the face of interest from Porto has been glossed over. The former Manchester City player is arguably as important as any Celtic player right now, he popped up with an excellent winner and forced McGregor to beat another shot on to the crossbar.

4 The atmosphere wasn’t the same.

The Celtic fans created quite a din but the dynamic of this match has changed with only 800 visiting fans in the corner as opposed to the best part of 7000. While it was more like a Clasico or a big European match, things turned a little bit ugly towards the end when a triumphalist lap of honour included a bit of taunting of the Rangers fans.

5 Ryan Christie has a role to play this season.

Introduced up front against Suduva in midweek, he was given a taste of the Old Firm match yesterday. Winning a free kick on the edge of the box for a controversial foul against Connor Goldson, it would be Scotland’s gain if he can play his way into Brendan Rodgers’ starting line-up during the course of the season.