Celtic have opened their Scottish Premiership campaign with two wins. Rangers, as always, have not.
Celtic easily beat Aberdeen to send the Pittodrie club to the bottom of the league after scraping a win against St Mirren at Parkhead the previous week.
Russell Martin, on the other hand, has enjoyed a sticky start to his league campaign after Rangers’ draws with Dundee and Motherwell leave them four points adrift of Celtic.
However, with league duty suspended until the 23rd of August, BBC man Pat Bonner was left stunned when he heard what could happen when Celtic play Rangers at Ibrox on the 31st of August.
Pat Bonner left stunned after hearing what Celtic could do at Rangers
Right now, Celtic are four points clear of Rangers. With Hearts joint-top of the Scottish Premiership table, the Ibrox club will be Brendan Rodgers’ closest challengers this season.
But that might not be the case if Celtic win at Ibrox and the permutations of that possible result have left BBC man Pat Bonner stunned.
Bonner said on BBC Radio Scotland, “Very much [an easy win]. And you know, once they got that second goal, the game was over.
“I just couldn’t see Aberdeen doing anything before that. I couldn’t see them doing anything after that.
“And it was a great goal from Hatate. Beautiful strike, top corner and Celtic will be very, very happy with the six points.
“And furthermore, they’re four points ahead of Rangers, which is incredible.”
Gordon: “And actually Rangers, assuming they get through against Plzen, they then will postpone their game against St Mirren, if Celtic win their next match, which I think is Livingston, they would go into the encounter with Rangers at the end of month with the opportunity to go 10 points clear.”
Bonner: “Oh my word!”
Gordon: “I mean, that’s crazy, isn’t it?
Bonner: “That’s crazy. And you just cannot afford if you are Rangers to allow Celtic to get any momentum like that ahead of you. How are you going to pull it back?
“You know, you need to win that game at Ibrox to get it back now, and that’s huge pressure on them.”
Going 10 points ahead of Rangers in the first month of the season would be unprecedented and would put Russell Martin, Rangers and the 49ers Enterprise’s Celtic challenge under serious scrutiny.
Celtic’s next three fixtures are already extremely important
Celtic’s fixture list is growing heavy and it’s just the start of the new season.
Next up is Falkirk in the League Cup as Brendan Rodgers looks to defend the cup that sets up a possible treble for Celtic.
Then it’s the Champions League qualifier as Celtic face either Slovan Bratislava or Kairat, where a £40m UEFA bounty awaits.
And before the Rangers game, Celtic must beat Livingston if they really want to put pressure on the Ibrox club.
What a couple of weeks the Celtic supporters have ahead of them.
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