Last week was a successful week for Celtic.
Two experienced, first team quality players came in the door and Celtic won in style with 4-2 and 6-0 wins over Jablonec and Dundee respectively.
There was a lot of pressure on the manager and the squad, and with results not going our way early on, the pressure was only going to be ramped up a notch unless things changed.
If we lost away to Jablonec, I have a feeling many fans would have had the pitchforks out, and whilst things looked shaky defensively, Celtic were firing on all fronts and could have had more than 4 goals easily.
Against Dundee, Ange went all out attack and blew them away with our fast and frantic attacking approach as well as some starring performances from Kyogo Furuhashi and Ryan Christie. It goes without saying that we have one of the most important games of the season on the 28th of August at Ibrox, and that game could be a good indicator as to the way things might go this season. It is crucial that Celtic come away with at least a point from that fixture.
These next few weeks will be vitally important for Celtic. Their next 3 games are all home matches, so they should be pretty winnable.
We face Jablonec in the Europa League, Hearts in the Premier Sports Cup and then St Mirren in the League. Should we get past the Czech side, we could even end up having a home tie against AZ Alkmaar before the derby game.
These games have come at a great time for Celtic. The squad need to build confidence and momentum, and with the fans right behind the players and the manager these games should be ideal for that.
The team should grab a few goals in these games and hopefully be in good shape to face our rivals at the end of the month. Rangers haven’t had the greatest start to the season having lost their last three matches.
Missing out on the champions league money is a huge loss for them which could force them to sell some key players. Add into that they will be travelling to either Armenia or Kazakhstan just days before the game against Celtic, things are pointing in our favour. With their defence looking shaky, and Celtic’s attack firing on all cylinders, this game may have just come at the right time.
A win over theRangers would also do wonders for the fans’s confidence in the manager, and would provide much needed sense of unity between the fans and the club which was ravaged last season.
A win over Rangers International should be the rule, not the exception.
If Malmo, can defeat the foe home and (with only ten players) away. And Dundee Celtic did the foe away. Celtic should be able to bury the orange cun7s, no problem. M’on Celtic.