Rangers’ wobble doesn’t spell the end of title race
Rangers have thrown away the advantage they could have had over Celtic in the race for the Premiership title.
In their past three league games, they have taken just two points.
With five games to go, they now trail the reigning champions by three points and are five goals worse off.
It’s all pointing towards Celtic making it three-in-a-row. But I don’t think it’s a done deal.
My view is that there is still a title race on and it could very easily go right down to the wire.
However, there is no doubt that Rangers need to improve and Philippe Clement needs to find solutions to his problems.
He needs to settle on his best attack-minded players and let them go at it.
Is it Cyriel Dessers or Kemar Roofe? Is the team getting enough from Fabio Silva, Todd Cantwell and Tom Lawrence?
Philippe needs to decide who he can trust to deliver success and it starts this afternoon against Hearts.
The last thing Rangers need is to lose out in the Scottish Cup semi-final today.
That would really anger the club’s supporters and they would see any form failure today as being a full-blown crisis.
The flip side is that a victory at the national stadium would give them a spring back in their step and set them up nicely for the next four weeks.
I’m sure Brendan Rodgers would have been delighted at seeing their rivals lose to Ross County last weekend and then draw at Dundee.
It puts them firmly back in the driving seat and it would seem that as long as they don’t lose to Rangers on May 11 then they’ll be home and dry.
Gers haven’t beaten Celtic in a meaningful Old Firm league game since August 2021. That’s not a record to be proud of.
But it doesn’t guarantee anything for Brendan and his players next month.
They will still need to work really hard and produce something special to win the game.
And it’s not just about doing a job against Rangers. They will face tough games – especially away to Kilmarnock and Dundee.
They’ve not beaten Killie yet this season and that’s something they will need to fix.
So, it will be all eyes on the games next weekend when Gers travel to St Mirren and Celts go to Dens Park.
Credit to Stephen Robinson at Saints and Tony Docherty at Dundee for getting into the top six.
I’m really pleased for Tony and the people at Dens. They’ve had to take some heavy criticism in the past two weeks for the postponements of the games against Rangers.
They were the victims of really horrendous weather. They didn’t deliberately leave hoses on to flood the pitch.
It was far from ideal but some of the things they’ve had labelled at them has been over the top.
For them then to be fined £186,000 seems really excessive. In fact, I’d say that’s a scandalous punishment. I know that £120,000 of it has been suspended but I would most certainly have the lawyers look at that decision.
It will be interesting to see how that works out in the coming days and weeks.
It’s the same with the title. It’s great to have it so tight.
Most people will say it’s Celtic’s to lose and it’s hard to argue with that.
They have a talented squad and they know how to get it over the line.
But Rangers deserve credit for getting back up beside them in the table after their start to the season and they may well yet get back there by May 18.
However, I accept that Celtic are favourites and rightly so. But I’m certain there is plenty still to happen in the next five rounds of fixtures.