With Celtic in a title race, every game feels like a cup final.
The headline day in Scotland today may be at Ibrox, but for Martin O’Neill’s men, the focus is firmly on Rugby Park.
Celtic face a not-so-friendly face in Neil McCann in Ayrshire, with the ex-Rangers and Hearts winger implementing a more front-footed approach since taking over from Stuart Kettlewell.
The Hoops may have won in their last two games against Dundee and Livingston, but they’ve made hard work of it on both occasions.
This context has left Chris Sutton unsure ahead of the game.
The Celtic starting XI to face Kilmarnock is here
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Chris Sutton on Celtic against Neill McCann’s Kilmarnock
One thing for sure is that at least one of Rangers and Hearts will drop points later in the day.
Celtic just need to be prepared for that by winning the three points, which would see the Ibrox side enter their game in third place.
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For Sutton, speaking on Sky Sports News ahead of the game, they’ll have to focus on the test of Kilmarnock, which won’t be easy with the effect of McCann.
He said: “Celtic have just got to worry about their own business, try and close that gap on Hearts at the top.
“And then if Hearts nick a result at Ibrox, which, you know, is possible… I’m not sure who’s going to win that one. I’m not sure Celtic are going to win today with the bounce Kilmarnock have had under Neil McCann!
“[They’ve] won the last couple of games, won them pretty well in terms of scoring a lot of goals. So it’s a different Kilmarnock outfit to the one earlier on in the season.
“It’s a boring thing to say as a player, but [the game] is all you can focus on. Focus on the job in hand. And let’s get it right – Celtic, in recent times, they haven’t controlled games, I think, as they would have liked.
“[McCann and Dodds] will [be up for it], they’ll be really organised. I think Neil, in a short space of time, has really sort of transformed the belief within the in the Kilmarnock dressing room.
“Tyreece John-Jules with a hat-trick in the week, so he’s going to come into this game with plenty of confidence – something for Celtic, I think, to worry about.
“I think you’ll see Kilmarnock maybe sit deep at times and look for that sort of quick transition ball in behind the Celtic centre halves for John-Jules, whose couple of his goals the other night came from those long balls.
“So it’ll be a fascinating game, but Kilmarnock will fancy this. They’re not sort of the Kilmarnock team, which we’ve been used to in the past in terms of big and physical, but they’re certainly pretty still pretty streetwise.”
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