Celtic face Rangers at Celtic Park in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday, the first derby between the two sides of the 2024/25 season.
Celtic have won all of their matches in the early stages of the season and confidence is flowing through the club after a strong end to the summer transfer window.
Rangers are out to spoil that feeling but Philippe Clement has yet to get the better of the Bhoys since arriving in Glasgow and the home side are hot favourites to get the job done again.
Early teams news as Celtic prepare for derby
Brendan Rodgers has no public injury concerns for the fixture. Cameron Carter-Vickers missed training on Friday but that was routine and not a sign he has picked up an issue.
The Celtic manager has also stated his clutch of late signings could make their debut in the fixture. Alex Valle, Auston Trusty, Luke McCowan and record buy Arne Engels all have a chance to feature at some stage.
Potential Celtic team vs Rangers
Kasper Schmeichel will continue in goal for his biggest test since arriving at the club this summer.
Despite the late arrival of Trusty and Valle, a familiar back four of Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Liam Scales and Greg Taylor is expected.
The manager won’t want to disrupt a settled, winning team too much and throwing new Bhoys in without much training time would be a risk. Valle is a strong contender to come off the bench in the second half.
Arne Engels likely has the biggest chance of a start of the new players but I’m even expecting him to be a substitute rather than a start given he only arrived an hour before the transfer deadline.
That means we should see a midfield trio of Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and Paulo Bernardo lining up after Matt O’Riley’s exit to Brighton.
With Kyogo Furuhashi back fit after his shoulder injury, the smart money is on him getting the nod over Adam Idah. The Irishman can disrupt the game in the second half but Kyogo has an excellent record in this fixture and can give the Rangers defence a torrid time.
We know Daizen Maeda relishes these fixtures too so expect to see him on the left flank terrorising James Tavernier, with the in-form Nicolas Kuhn also returning to the starting line-up after a back problem last week.
Your Predicted XI in full is: Schmeichel, Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor, McGregor, Bernardo, Hatate, Kuhn, Maeda, Kyogo.
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