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Five Reasons We Can Look Forward To This Week With Real Confidence.

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For some people this is a “defining week” at Celtic Park.

If we win both the games we’re facing, then it’ll be the week where even the most bitter enemy of our club will stop sniggering behind their hands and start to take us seriously as a force.

It will shatter the confidence at Ibrox so much that I wonder if, even this early, it would be a deadly blow.

There is a lot to gain from turning in two excellent, forceful displays.

There are reasons to be wary.

Of course there are. We’re playing against two teams who are well capable of hurting us if we’re not tuned in.

But the reasons to be optimistic far outweigh our causes for concern.

This article is going to take a look at the five reasons why we can go into this week with the confidence to get two massive results.

And here’s the thing; massive results means two wins, although two draws would not hurt us nor blunt our momentum.

One draw and one win would be excellent, especially if the win was at Ibrox.

But we can win both, and I this manager will certainly aim to.

Our team is creating chances and scoring goals

There are more goals in this current Celtic side than I can remember.

The average of four goals a game in the last six – and us not having failed to score in a single match in this campaign – are only part of the story. The number of shots on target and the number of chances overall is much, much higher than we have registerd in a long, long time. The way we are playing is opening up possibilities … but the talent we have on hand is incredible.

Kyogo and Abada look sensational. To have secured the talents of two such potent players in the top half of the pitch is quite extraordinary and speaks volumes about Ange’s ability to spot a player. He would have been presented with lists to choose from and somehow he’s seen the footballers who are most atuned to his playing system.

Kyogo has been getting most of the ink, and deservedly so, but the impact of Abada cannot be ignored as he is awesomely gifted and young enough that he’s only going to get better.

Which for our rivals should be a pretty sobering thought.

The potency of this team going forward is a good reason for us to be optimistic.

Our defence is improving with every game

The improvement in Ralston since the season began is extraordinary.

But no less interesting has been the way in Welsh and Taylor have gotten better and slotted so neatly into the new manager’s system. Starfelt is the one the media is focussing on as a “weak link” but he is dominant in the air and improving on the ground in every game.

To read the way the press is talking you’d never know we’ve got five clean sheets in the six games since we hit form.

Yet that’s a fact. It’s just not a fact the media wants to write.

On top of a defence which is improving every day, there is Joe Hart.

Do not underestimate the role Hart has played in our defensive improvements; you see htis guy every game, organising the players in front of him and telling them what to do.

Video footage from the other night actually shows him talking to the manager about it during a break in the game, with the two of them apparently agreed on how it should work.

This can only be good for us, as he’s a top class keeper with impeccible credentials and is just the guy we needed there.

The manager has instilled self-belief in this team

Another thing that is readily apparent about this team right now is their astonishing self-belief and confidence.

You see this side doing things with the ball that few Celtic sides in recent years have attempted; lay-offs, tricks, one-twos in dangerous areas. There is a real verve about them, and that’s down to the manager and the ideas he’s put across.

He has told these guys they need fear nobody, that they can outscore anyone.

And it looks as if we can, when we are on our game.

Some will say that our self-belief will only be confirmed when it is challenged; we didn’t win the first three matches us under this guy. Everyone in the media thought we were heading for a car-crash campaign.

Keevins, that witless worm, predicted a third place finish for us in the league for God’s sake.

But the manager kept the team focussed, and driven, and believing.

And because they did, the results have come … and now we’re playing with a swagger that has to be seen to be believed.

This team has already had its self-belief questioned … and look how we came through.

There is real unity in the Celtic squad

Celtic played the whole of last season as if the whole house was divided from top to bottom.

There is none of that in evidence this year; instead the place buzzes, and the players all seem united, even those who might not be at the club much longer aren’t just doing their bit but getting fully involved in making this into a team once more.

Ange Postecoglou has restored the harmony in the dressing room.

You have to wonder now if some of those who’ve left were the cause of that disharmony, and not just Lennon’s own disastrous behaviour. Because it has all fallen into place so completely that a change of manager can’t have been the only calming, moderating influence.

Every winning side depends on team-work, and it’s evident all over the place at the moment. There are no glory hoarders in this team, everyone knows that the collective good is to the benefit of all and are playing that way.

It is a marked improvement from the last campaign.

Our rivals look shaky and ready to fall

Across the city, they give every impression of being a side that is ripe to fall.

They’ve had a couple of good results in recent weeks, but are nowhere near the side they were last season.

They are conceding goals, for a start, and they weren’t in the last campaign … it was one of the reasons they finished so far ahead of us. Even today against a team I expected them to beat comfortably they conceded two … their defence isn’t any great shakes, even as all the focus is being put on ours.

Gerrard hasn’t changed his tactics from the last campaign; they look flat and out of ideas at times. There is none of the verve that our team is currently playing with. On top of that, you get the impression that there is unhappiness in their camp and that some of the players are angling for a way out. There is much speculation about that online.

Finally, the window is about to shut and it is inconceivable that they won’t sell a key player if an offer comes in.

They simply have to, and they will be weaker for it.

On top of that are the psychological effects of it; their squad losing a key performer as we continue to sign people.

The tide has turned.

We have the momentum.

This could be the week that proves it.

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