It’s Celtic At The Summit. There’s No Such Thing As “Joint Top Of The Table.”

On Wednesday night, I wrote that I fully expected our club to be second in the table today. I couldn’t see Ibrox failing to get across that line. They didn’t though, and that amuses me.

What should amuse us all is that the initial reaction in some of the press was to act as if they had. Suddenly they were the front runners, even without being in front.

My favourite stories were those which put them “joint top.” Ask anyone in professional sports how that works and they’ll give you the obvious answer; it doesn’t.

There’s no such thing as joint top of the league.

One side always sits at the summit. Today that’s us. Whatever changes ttomorrow or whenever, right now that’s the state of play.

On Wednesday, I got several moronic messages asking me if I was “getting my excuses in” for the article I put up before their game kicked off. What excuses?

What did the article say about the destination of the league title?

What was the headline?

It won’t be won on goal difference, it’ll be won on points, and my confident prediction is that it’ll be Celtic who win it.

A lot of them must be feeling pretty embarrassed today because all the talk was of how many goals they’d be top by, and whilst I’m sure they still expect to have the last laugh they’re not there and all the bluster in the world won’t matter.

A lot of the hacks must have had to shred their notes and cancel their big editorials about how the tide has turned and the momentum has swung.

I don’t think it has, I think when you beat your rivals you have momentum, and if they think a draw against Aberdeen halts that they can say so but not whilst they are also pretending us beating them doesn’t matter to their own claim.

They are entitled to shelve those stories for another time if they’re confident that time will ever come, but they should stop trying to pretend it already has.

They can look for whatever sustains their sense of superiority as they will but it isn’t borne out in the league table right now.

Yeah, we’re top right now merely on “goals scored”, but in other countries it would be on the head-to-heads (played two won two for us, in case they forgot that too) and we’d still be the ones in front.

Some of them want to talk about “results since the manager came in” and they can do that too, not that it matters a damn.

Because that’s not how the league table works any more than the fabled “85 minute” version did or is any more legitimate than any of the other bizarre thought experiments they’ve indulged themselves with over the last couple of years.

We’ve all seen plenty of Ibrox bosses getting talked up over the last few years and it’s amusing up to a point. But this is the first time in a while that this has coincided with the full-court press character assassination not just on the manager at Celtic but everything connected with the club.

People accuse us of feeling the pressure … but it’s feeling like we’re under constant, relentless attack right now, and that’s not in our imagination.

I think most of us are coping with that admirably well and so is the team.

So is Brendan Rodgers, although he’s publicly expressed how pissed off,he is with it. No-one should mistake that for a man on the ragged edge though.

I think the real desperation shows through in those who want to bend reality to suit themselves. Look at that league table today. Take a good look.

Before today’s match even kicks off, that’s Celtic there are the top and in spite of what some want to believe that’s on merit, and there is no way to make it read differently.

We’re the leaders, and there is no silverware for second place.

Today we can put another three points and some goals on there and then it’s up to the other lot to see if they knock us off our perch. So far, they can’t.