Rangers are currently sitting on the top of the table after they thrashed Hamilton Academical in the last game before the international break. On the other hand, Celtic dropped points in two back to back league games as they drew with the Hibs and surprisingly lost narrowly to Livingston.
We can have one of the closest title races in the Premiership in recent memory. One of Rangers’ most prominent critic Chris Sutton recently said that Rangers had strengthened well. The former Celtic star is often known to wind up the Gers faithful with his comments as he has mocked Rangers on numerous occasions about them closing the gap over Celtic ever since Gerrard took over.
Sutton praises Rangers
However, after the recent round of results, maybe Sutton has come out of his denial mode and realised that perhaps Rangers are a proper contender this season.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, he said, ”I think this season that Rangers have strengthened, they have competition for places. You can see Rangers are building something. I worry about Celtic if the centre forward Edouard gets injured, the backup is unproven. Rangers have Morelos, who this season seems to really have settled down, they’ve got Jermain Defoe who is scoring goals, [Gerrard] is able to rotate, they’re a team with confidence.”
Positives for Rangers and the impact of Gerrard
This is undoubtedly one of the rare moments where Sutton has appreciated Rangers’ quality, and he probably knows that Celtic will have a fierce battle on their hands this season. Having two fit and firing strikers is definitely a big plus for Gerrard, and as Sutton mentioned, the manager can rotate them and keep them fresh.
Moreover, Rangers have been without some of their key players like Ryan Kent, Jordan Jones and Joe Aribo in the last few games but they still found a way to produce convincing performances. Therefore the team is ready to challenge on every front even if there are some injury issues. Beefing up the squad depth over the summer has also eased up the pressure on the manager.
The gap between the two Glaswegian giants has never been closer in the last decade, and Gerrard deserves some major credit for bringing Rangers back to life. He has indeed been backed heavily in the transfer market, but the English manager has recruited well. There is no doubt that his iconic image has helped Rangers in landing some of the targets. It’s time for Rangers now to produce the results on the pitch as they are very much giving Celtic a run for their money.
