Celtic enjoyed a fruitful week in the Champions League, but they have lost their top spot in the Scottish Premiership table.
High-flying Aberdeen are proving worthy title challengers and Celtic will be looking to put things right against Motherwell at Fir Park on Sunday.
The Dons aren’t playing any European football and it seems to be helping them very much as they scored a late goal to beat Dundee United on Saturday.
On one hand, Brendan Rodgers will feel like a team in Scotland is finally providing his Celtic side with a worthy title challenge.
But on the other, it’s time for the champions to showcase their ruthless nature and put a Motherwell team, sitting fifth in the league and hoping to go level on points with third-placed Rangers, to the sword.
One man Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell will have at his disposal for the Celtic match is Open Goal pundit Andy Halliday.
Andy Halliday says Celtic’s games against Stuart Kettlewell’s Motherwell are usually ‘close’
Celtic’s goalless draw against Atalanta in the Champions League has provided the team with a bit of a boost.
But, regardless of what would have happened in Italy, Halliday feels it doesn’t make a difference as to how Rodgers’ side would perform at Fir Park because they are ‘expected to win every game’ and are ‘confident to win every game’.
Halliday joined Motherwell at the start of 2024, so he has now got an understanding of what Kettlewell is all about.
Ahead of the Celtic game, Halliday has made a claim that he feels might ‘backfire’ because he thinks the games between the two sides, during Kettlewell’s time in charge, have been ‘relatively tight’.
“I think domestically Celtic are expected to win every game and they are confident to win every game,” said Halliday. “So, I don’t think if anything happened (against Atalanta) was going to affect that.
“It’s going to be a hard game, obviously. We have had a good start to the season and they have had a very good start. But see what I will say, this is the kiss of death, this is something you know you will say and on Monday is going to backfire.
“But I think the Celtic-Motherwell games under Stuart Kettlewell are relatively tight. Celtic have, more often than not, won the game, but I think they have been competitive. It’s going to be difficult. They are the best team in the league for a reason. But who knows, you never know. He (Kettlewell) is good at tweaking tactics. There is a slight change (in tactics for the Celtic game), but you aren’t deviating away like we talked about Rodgers. You aren’t going too far away from what you work on every single week, so it is still very relatively similar. One thing I will say is that we kind of always try and have a go at Celtic.”
Celtic’s record against Kettlewell’s Motherwell
The Motherwell manager has faced Celtic four times, including once against Ange Postecoglou.
That’s a fair amount of games to see what he is all about against the best team in Scotland and he has caused a few issues.
From the four matches, Motherwell have picked up two draws, losing the other two games 2-1 and 3-1, respectively – the latter required Adam Idah and Luis Palma to score stoppage-time goals to win the game.
The same for Matt O’Riley’s late winner during the 2-1 triumph in September 2023, with this fixture under Kettlewell’s reign littered with late goals.
Jonathan Obika scored a late equaliser at Parkhead last season to earn his team the point, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if late goals are required again.
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