The next two away games are massive for Celtic. They might give us the edge.

Celtic are about to enter a crucial stretch of the season.

The next two matches will both take place away from home. Both will be played in Dundee. After that, six league games will remain. Four of those will take place at Celtic Park, including the two biggest fixtures of the run-in against Hearts and the club from Ibrox.

That alone is significant.

A run-in with four home games out of six normally gives any title contender a major advantage. When two of those home matches involve the teams competing directly with you for the championship, the significance grows even greater.

So the obvious question follows.

Do two away wins put the title in Celtic’s hands?

At the moment Celtic sit two points behind Hearts. They are also one point ahead of the side from Ibrox. The margins are tight enough that a single bad result could swing the momentum in either direction.

Yet the structure of the fixture list suggests that Celtic may be entering the most favourable part of their schedule.

Before we start thinking about run ins and title deciders, Celtic must navigate the next two games.

Dundee United away.

Dundee away.

Neither of those games should be dismissed lightly. Both sides have shown they can trouble bigger clubs this season, and away fixtures in Scotland rarely prove as straightforward as the league table suggests.

However, Celtic must win exactly these kinds of matches if the team intends to lift the title.

There is no point looking ahead to dramatic clashes with Hearts or the Ibrox side if the team drops points in games like these.

The glamour fixtures rarely decide title races. The quieter weeks do, when contenders simply collect points and move on.

Six points from these two matches would change the entire complexion of the league table.

If Hearts slip even once during the same period, Celtic could suddenly move back to the top.

Even if that does not happen immediately, those six points would place the team perfectly for what comes next.

Once the two Dundee fixtures are completed, only six matches will remain in the league campaign.

Four of them will take place at Celtic Park.

That matters.

Celtic Park remains one of the most difficult places in the country for visiting teams to get results. The crowd can be an enormous advantage at this stage of the season, particularly when the stakes are high and the atmosphere becomes intense.

There is all sorts of talk around the Green Brigade. We now have several weeks to sort the nonsense out and get them back in the ground for that run-in. Think of the difference that might make going forward, especially as two of those four games are against the teams Celtic are fighting directly.

Those matches are obvious title deciders.

When games of that magnitude are played at home rather than away, every advantage counts. That is exactly why ending this stand-off matters so much. Green Brigade bring atmosphere and energy to the stadium, and Celtic supporters will not react kindly if the board keeps them out much longer.

They do not guarantee victory but it gives Celtic the chance to shape the title race in front of their own supporters.

Of course, the fixture list after the split is still uncertain.

The two away matches in the final phase could easily be trips to Motherwell and Easter Road. Those are never easy venues.

Yet even allowing for that uncertainty the broad shape of the run in still looks more favourable for Celtic than it does for their rivals.

Hearts will face their own pressure as the team currently sitting on top of the league. The longer they stay there the heavier that pressure will become.

Meanwhile the club from Ibrox is dealing with a very different set of problems. Their supporters have little tolerance for failure and their manager is already operating under intense scrutiny.

That environment can turn toxic very quickly if results begin to wobble.

Compared with those circumstances Celtic’s path through the final weeks appears slightly clearer.

So here’s the thing; if we win those games is this ours to lose? This is the question supporters will inevitably start asking if Celtic do get to the closing run on this current run of form. Two points behind is not a large gap.

If Celtic defeat Dundee United and Dundee they will head into the final six games with momentum and a strong set of home fixtures ahead of them.

At that point the psychology of the title race could shift dramatically.

Hearts would suddenly be looking over their shoulders. The Ibrox side would know that one slip might remove them from contention entirely.

Celtic, meanwhile, would have the chance to decide the championship in their own stadium.

That does not mean the title would automatically be “ours to lose.” Football rarely works that neatly.

But it would mean something very close to that.

The run in would favour Celtic.

The key games would be played at Celtic Park.

And the team would know that winning the matches in front of them would almost certainly deliver the championship.

For now, however, everything begins with two difficult away trips.

Win those two and the entire title race may suddenly start to look very different.

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