Rangers and Aberdeen seek lost prestige

GLASGOW: Rangers and Aberdeen, once accustomed to fighting it out for Scottish titles, clash at Ibrox on Wednesday with both clubs desperate for a win to hang on to the coattails of leaders Celtic.

Just over a third of the Scottish Premiership season has gone and already it is hard to see past Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic side going on to claim a seventh successive league title.

The Parkhead club have been invincible and Sunday’s victory against Motherwell in the League Cup final at Hampden -- their fourth successive trophy success -- was their 65th match without defeat domestically.

And despite already dropping almost as many points as they did in the entirety of last season, Celtic, who visit Motherwell on Wednesday, hold a three-point lead over Aberdeen in the league having played a game less while Old Firm rivals Rangers are a further six points behind in fourth place.

Although the Dons finished runners-up to Celtic in all three competitions last season, they look no closer to scaling the heights they did in the 1980s when a side managed by Alex Ferguson broke the Glasgow clubs’ domination of the Scottish game.

Meanwhile Rangers -- UEFA Cup finalists as recently as 2008 -- have yet to recover from the club’s liquidation in 2012 which led to the club’s enforced absence from the top flight for four years.

Rangers, without a manager since Pedro Caixinha was sacked last month, are rudderless and show no signs of mounting a serious challenge any time soon as they lurch from one crisis to another. - AFP