Stats Prove That Celtic No Longer Has Any Ground To Fear … Even In Paisley.

There’s a good piece on 67Hail Hail today laying out our form for the 22 games of the season which have been played up until now.

This is important because it means we’ve now played every other club in the league home and away.

And what those stats show is that, really, the old fears that used to consume about certain away grounds are now without foundation in reality.

The truth is, although we’ve dropped points in Paisley and Ibrox there is nothing any longer to fear when we’re playing away from home. This does not mean we can abandon caution and respect for other clubs, but it does mean that ancient worries about Rugby Park, Livingston, Easter Road and Tynecastle are no longer valid.

Our form right now is absolutely incredible.

Listen, we have all seen Celtic teams which seemed far stronger than the clubs around them, but this one is different. There is a relentlessness to this team which most us haven’t seen before.

Even the side which won an Invincible Treble didn’t seem as resilient and determined not to lose as this one is. We’ve seen strong Celtic squads, but never one where you can substitute just about any player in it for someone just as good.

Even the Rodgers teams – as formidable as they were – looked vulnerable on plastic pitches and we were always given a game at Easter Road. This is why the Livingston fixture, in particular, loomed so large in our thinking down through the years … it no longer does.

This team has a great focus, and that’s down to the manager and the ideas he’s instilled in these players. You look across the city at rampant egotism, the idea that they are simply expected to win every game, the idea that there’s some divine right, and it’s no wonder they’ve gone behind in nearly every much The Mooch has been in charge of.

Yes, they are showing their own little flashes of resilience, but the truth is they can’t keep doing it without it catching up to them. We, on the other hand, just look like a merciless football machine and the reason for that is that we don’t have that sense of entitlement. We know every game is a war and that every opponent deserves our respect.

Our respect. But not our fear. The only thing we have to worry about as long as we’re focussed is shooting ourselves in the foot.