Rangers vs Celtic Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Rangers fans, after years out in the cold following their financial difficulties, will finally get to host their Old Firm rivals Celtic in the Scottish Premiership again on Saturday. It’s a perfect way to end what has been a very successful 2016 for the Glasgow giants, but it has the potential to turn into a nightmare for them.

The hosts failed to win their midweek clash against St Johnstone as they drew 1-1, and although that does extend their unbeaten streak to five games, it ends a winning streak that would have given them a huge boost in confidence as they host Celtic.

This failure to win also saw them slip further behind their rivals in the Scottish Premiership. Rangers remain 2nd in the table, but after Celtic beat Ross County 2-0 on Wednesday, the hosts are now a huge 16 points adrift and have played a game more.

This win against Ross County extended Celtic’s winning streak to six matches in all competitions, but when you exclude continental competition their record looks almost too good to be true. They have won a huge 17 domestic matches on the bounce now and remain unbeaten in their 23 domestic games this season. They have won 22 of them, including twice against Rangers.

The last meeting at the Ibrox between these two age old enemies was back in October in the Scottish League Cup semi final. Rangers set up incredibly defensive in that semi final but still couldn’t keep their visitors out, losing the game 1-0 in the end.

Rangers have improved since then, but so have Celtic. At the time The Hoops weren’t at their best defensively and were relying on the fantastic goal-scoring prowess of Moussa Dembele to guide them to wins. They have since improved at the back and their other star attackers have started to find their feet. Scott Sinclair, Leigh Griffiths, Moussa Dembele, and Stuart Armstrong have a huge 34 league goals between them this season.

Stuart Armstrong is who I’m backing for our anytime goalscorer predictions though. The 24 year old has bagged six of his eight goals away from home this season and has scored four goals in his last six games, so backing him to find the net at 3/1 looks a good choice.

As far as the overall result goes this will definitely be Celtic’s toughest test in the league so far. With the form they are in, I just can’t see them failing to win though, and odds of 3/4 for a Celtic Win look very good value considering their utter dominance of the league so far. I’m going for that along with a 2-1 correct score predictions at 7/1.