Looking At The Exciting Scottish Premiership Title Race

Date: 7th January 2019

 

Who would have thought as we reached 2019 that we’d have such a strong title race in our top flight?

Only three points separate first place and fourth spot! 

Now for me, current Scottish Premiership champions Celtic are still favourites. They’re joint top of the league with rivals Rangers but The Hoops also have a game in hand. 

They have an experienced boss in Brendan Rodgers and importantly they’ve got a squad at Parkhead that have been there and won all the trophies before. So they know exactly what it takes to get their hands on that trophy and their opponents just don’t have the same amount of experience. 

That being said, Celtic have suffered this term and aren’t the unbeatable force that they were in 2016-17. Rodgers needs to find a way of getting more from his players, so they can become feared again. 

At the moment, a lot of the momentum seems to be with Rangers. 

New Gers gaffer Steven Gerrard has brought a lot of optimism to Ibrox and the players certainly seem to be playing for him. He has also built a pretty decent squad and in their last outing they beat Celtic 1-0, ending a thirteen game streak without beating their bitter city rivals. 

The Light Blues have brought in Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis early in this transfer window. Both of those veterans have the quality to improve Rangers as the get ready for a potential title run-in. 

Third placed Kilmarnock had the best calendar year in 2018 when it came to results in the Scottish Premiership. Killie might not have the wealth and resources that the duo in Glasgow have but they do have a great manager in Steve Clarke and a squad that will give their all. 

Every time you count Kilmarnock out under Clarke, they seem to keep coming back with more impressive results. They’ve lost four times this season and that’s the same amount as leaders Celtic!

The Ayrshire club have beaten both Celtic and Aberdeen this term. The biggest quality Killie have, in my opinion, is consistency and that could be enough to bring you silverware. 

Aberdeen finished runners-up for the fourth time in a row last season and they’ve been a strong force for some time now. They know how to put a run together that takes them away from the rest of the field (save Celtic). 

The Dons had a disappointing start to this term but they’ve managed to turn things around and are now back in the frame for the championship race. Dons boss Derek McInnes masterminded his side to beat both Celtic and Rangers in their own grounds in 2018. 

The question is if Aberdeen can keep their run going? In the last few years they always seemed to run out of gas and their challenge ultimately slipped away.

It’s great that we can sit down during this winter break and look ahead to what will hopefully be a tough and exciting title race. The longer we can have four teams vying for the trophy the better, as so many supporters can dream about their heroes lifting the Scottish Premiership title! 

By Scott Johnston (TheFootyBlog.net)

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