Everyone has an opinion on Celtic’s title race with Hearts and Rangers.
But what about Opta’s infamous Supercomputer?
Anyone who watches Sky Sports’ coverage of the Premier League will be familiar with the predictive algorithm designed to forecast football results.
It processes millions of data points to simulate 10,000 outcomes. Thankfully for us, this season’s Scottish Premiership will only have one outcome. Will Celtic come out on top? Well, somewhat surprisingly, the supercomputer doesn’t think so.
Your first thought when you see the fixtures…
How many points will we pick up?
Opta Supercomputer predicts Celtic to finish third in Scottish Premiership
As published on the Opta Analyst website, the algorithm gives Celtic just an 18% chance of winning the title.
Hearts are in second with a 35% chance, while Rangers are heavily favoured by the model with a 48% chance of coming out on top.
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Isn’t Celtic’s small percentage of just 18% a bit of a surprise, given that everyone’s saying that they have the easiest run of fixtures?
Well, according to Opta, they don’t. Martin O’Neill’s side have an average fixture difficulty rating of 77.6 according to the model, whilst Rangers’ is 77.4.
Many have assumed that the Hoops have it easiest given that they host both of their title rivals, and this is undoubtedly an advantage — but according to the nerds, the entire run is easiest for Rangers.
They also measure the season so far on expected points, which are frustrating reading for Celtic fans.
Whilst the Celts are performing almost exactly at their expected total of 68.0, Rangers are notably overperforming, whilst Hearts are wildly over their expected total of 56.7.
In fact, their Edinburgh rivals at Easter Road are actually ahead of the Jambos on the expected table, underperforming their expected total by six points.
Nobody tell Martin O’Neill that we wrote this article, please.
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Celtic’s previous performances against their post-split opponents
Celtic’s five post-split fixtures will, of course, be repeats of clashes that have already taken place this season.
In fact, the Falkirk game – the first after the split – will be the Bairns’ third Parkhead visit this season. Both Brendan Rodgers and O’Neill have prevailed in the two preceding Glasgow encounters.
Both Hearts and Rangers have already won at Celtic Park – but of course, both of those games fell during Wilfried Nancy’s tenure.
The Frenchman also took charge of Celtic’s only visit to Fir Park this season, which he also lost.
Under O’Neill, Celtic won their trip to Easter Road in November.
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