Game week 6 – Celtic in crisis? Rangers a force again?

Game week 6 results –

Aberdeen 1 – 0 Motherwell

Dundee 0 – 3 Hibs

Hamilton 3 – 0 St Mirren

Hearts 0 – 0 Livingston

Kilmarnock 2 – 1 Celtic

Rangers 5 – 1 St Johnstone

Celtic in crisis?

Celtic plunged to their second defeat of the season away to Kilmarnock, losing to an injury time goal. I had mentioned in last weeks instalment that alarm bells should be ringing, this shows again that this Celtic team only seem to turn up for certain games. Jack Hendry seems to be copping a lot of the blame which I personally feel is unfair, he has an unfortunate record of only starting one game Celtic have won out of eight (he was subbed at half time in game they won). It doesn’t look good I’ll admit but from back to front Celtic looked disjointed and a lot of empty jerseys throughout the team. The high pressing and free flowing attacking football from two seasons ago and to a lesser extent last season seems resigned to the past. Rodgers now has a massive job in lifting his side to try and rediscover consistency. I personally wonder how long he may stick around if things continue in this manner as he will not want to taint his near faultless reputation since arriving in Glasgow. Kilmarnock deserve a lot of credit, they were brilliant and rattled Celtic. Steve Clarke adding to his already top class reputation, for him to be unbeaten against Celtic since arriving in Scotland is just remarkable considering the gulf in finances.

Rangers a force again?

On the other side of the city, there was a stark contrast in performance. Rangers blew St Johnstone away and the saints will be looking at that result thinking it could have been more than five. Rangers looked hungry and eager to put on a performance after their heroics in Villarreal on Thursday and they delivered. Steven Gerrard seems to have added some steel and given Rangers a bit of backbone. Something that has been missing for so long, Rangers no longer look a side scared of standing up to a challenge and won’t be bullied. The key now for Rangers is to kick on and deliver consistently, and who knows where that may leave them come May considering their rivals erratic form across the city. Gerrard also has some key players arriving back from injury and this can only help with a busy run of games up until Christmas at least. 

Hearts unlucky not to stretch lead. 

A great penalty save from Liam Kelly denied Hearts continuing their brilliant start to the season. They done everything except score and I wonder if this type of result may be enough to knock them and put doubt in their minds, it will interesting how they react to this setback and see if they have the mental strength capable of delivering a title challenge. Livingston once again showed they have adapted to the Premiership without any problems and this is arguably their best result since their return. 

Great result for the Accies

Finally, last week I touched on Hamilton being set for another season of struggle but typically they then go out and deliver a brilliant performance to beat St Mirren at New Douglas Park. Martin Canning now needs his side to kick on and get themselves up the table and out of harms way. St Mirren couldn’t back up their brilliant performance against Celtic a week ago and new boss Oran Kearney will be looking for them to get back on track right away! Consistency seems to be word of the week and St Mirren need to find some to build on results like last weeks.