Ross County vs Celtic could be an intriguing affair today, but Staggies co-boss Stuart Kettlewell has labeled Celtic “the best” heading into the game.
Neil Lennon’s side come into the game feeling extremely good about themselves. We’ve now racked up nine consecutive wins and bagged 84 goals in 29 competitive games. That’s more goals than we managed at this stage of any of Brendan Rodgers’ campaigns in charge.
Our current winning run started with a 6-0 demolition job of County at Celtic Park back in October. Not many would’ve believed it would still have been standing by the time we next faced them considering our fixture list.
Kettlewell, however, has been bigging up Celtic’s quality heading into the game. Despite Odsonne Edouard potentially missing out with “a niggle” (Celtic Twitter), the County boss wasn’t having the prospect of us being weaker without him. Speaking to Press and Journal, Kettlewell gave us a glowing review.
“They made those changes on Thursday and still got an excellent result against a good side. We’ll just have to wait and see. He’s an exceptional player, but there will be another very good player waiting to start if he doesn’t.
“I’ve watched Celtic in their last several games, and it could have been 6-0 in some of their other games as well, with the chances they had. We associate Aberdeen as being one of the top sides in this country. Realistically, at Pittodrie, it could have been more than four for Celtic in the first half of that game.
“This is the best we’re dealing with. It’s up to us to try to stifle that.”
Celtic continue to have no problems on the goal front
For the apparent striker problems we’ve been having recently, it’s incredible to see our form in front of goal. Over the course of October and November, Celtic have scored a scary 32 goals in all competitions.
Domestically since our last defeat against Livingston back in October, we’ve netted 23 goals in only six games. The stats show that Kettlewell is right to be wary about our options even without Edouard.
Eddy provides so much to the team going forward, and is an undoubtedly special talent. But Celtic have proven that they can score goals without him. Thursday night’s win against Rennes was further evidence of it. In fact, of those 23 domestic goals mentioned, Edouard has either scored or assisted nine of them (Transfermarkt). That shows there are plenty of other creators in this side.
40 of our goals have come in the Premiership this season, leaving us the top scorers in the country by two. Rangers sit behind us on 38, whilst, incredibly, the team next closest to us is Motherwell with only 25.
If you’re comparing us to County, it’s not a pretty sight for the Staggies. Celtic have netted 24 goals more than Kettlewell’s side, and have also conceded 23 less. Celtic’s solid defence has meant that they’ve only been breached seven times domestically (WhoScored).
So Kettlewell has a point about us being the best. Hopefully, we prove just that this afternoon.
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