The odds-layers – 27 different firms – are not just going with Celtic to win the first Old Firm clash of the season, they’re going with Celtic to win with plenty to spare.
Every last one of them have Brendan Rodgers’ team as odds-on favourites – no great surprise given they have only one loss in 12 and that was a meaningless thing at Ibrox when they were already champions.
Clement’s ‘no-hopers’ are available at 4-1, a huge price in a two-horse race. Clearly, the professionals think that one of the horses is lame.
Such is the confidence behind a Celtic victory that the bookmakers make Mikey Johnston more likely to score than any Rangers player. This is Mikey Johnston who now plays for West Brom.
They say the bookies are never wrong, We may have unearthed a flaw in that theory.
For a fixture that has a reputation for wild unpredictability, the Old Firm tussle has become samey. Callum McGregor dominates, Kyogo Furushashi scores, Rangers fight back, but Celtic win.
Genuine surprises don’t happen much any more. Expect it to be close again, but expect the same winner as before, too.
Three times last season Celtic went into a 2-0 lead and looked to all the world that they were going to make it more, only for Rangers to rally and make a game of it.
Celtic lord it over this fixture but their last seven wins over Rangers have been by a single goal.
Whatever you say about Rangers’ inability to win these matches, they’ve shown a habit of staying in them, even when down to 10 men, as they were in two derbies last season.
So, odds of 4-1 seem generous, albeit there will be no rush to lump on.
Rodgers is the king of all he surveys when it comes to days like this. With a track record of only one defeat in 18, he’s got the best stats of any of his predecessors.
- And his team is motoring right now. Three league games, three wins, nine goals scored, none conceded.
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