Three wins from the title, Celts. This is the week we’ve waited for.

Last night, as every Celtic fan would have expected, Derek McInnes had his little freak-out after the game. That was always going to happen. If his side drops points, he is always going to look for someone else to blame. He is always going to look for some outside party.

If Celtic end up winning this title, he will talk about decisions that did not go their way. He will ignore the times this season when decisions have gone against us. He will ignore the large lead Hearts had built up at one point.

He will focus only on the things that make his own performance look better.

That is a man who is rattled. The BBC might be trying to put a brave face on it for him, but he knows. He knows that result is potentially disastrous. He knows that if he has to come to Celtic Park on the final day and a win makes us champions that he’s in bother and the dream might slip out of his hands. He’s not kidding anyone, especially himself.

What did we say about the Motherwell game? It was the one to watch. It absolutely was the one to watch. Although we can no longer go to Motherwell and win the title, I strongly suspect that if we win today, we will be almost there by full-time on Wednesday night.

Yes, the media is saying that if Hearts come to Celtic Park and win, they are champions regardless. That is technically true. But coming to Celtic Park and winning is not as straightforward as the BBC would like to make it sound. This will be a title decider. It will not be an ordinary day at the office.

Before we get there, there are two other obstacles to navigate. One today. One on Wednesday. But it’s now where we wanted it; in our hands. Three wins and it’s done and nobody’s goal difference will matter to us at all.

Today will be difficult. There is no doubt about that. They will expend every bit of energy they have trying to prevent us from winning. There are basically two reasons for that. The first is obvious: they do not want us to win, and they think they can dent our title chances.

But a victory for Celtic today guarantees them third place. It does not guarantee us a league title, but it puts them where they belong. While it is highly likely they will end up third anyway, we can nail that coffin lid shut.

From this point on, though, this is all about us.

This is all about what we do.

Ignore they hype around Hearts now. Hearts are no longer the story, no matter how hard the media will try to make it seem otherwise. The media will do everything it can to make this all about Hearts. But if Celtic win today, this week will be a beauty.

We start today on the brink of something remarkable.

This time next week, we will all know how it ended, which seems almost surreal considering how long and tough this league season has been. There have been so many moments when a lot of us just wanted it over with. Well, in seven days, it will be.

At times like this, managers are often judged on performances, and the media will try to make excuses for Danny Rohl. They will say, “Look at what he inherited.” Fine.

Look at what Martin O’Neill inherited.

Martin O’Neill is going to get a lot closer to the title than Rohl is. We were still a shambles when Rohl was already bedded in at Ibrox, and Martin O’Neill very swiftly got the better of him at Hampden in the cup.

Then we proceeded to shoot ourselves in the foot in spectacular fashion with a dreadful managerial appointment, one that required the whole squad to be picked up all over again.

To even be here now, in this state, at this moment, on the brink of quite possibly winning this title, is an accomplishment of momentous proportions from Martin O’Neill and these players. If we win today and then win on Wednesday, I think we have got it.

Because having done all that, I do not believe this team will blow it on the final day in front of the home support. So it is all about us now. For the next six days, no other club matters. No other club counts. No other club owns this story.

If we turn up today, we win. If we turn up on Wednesday night, we win. If we turn up next Saturday, we win the title.

If someone had said to you at the start of this season that we would be on our third manager before the end, that there would be the unlikeliest title challenge in history from a club outside Glasgow, that they would push it to the final game, but that not only would Celtic still win the title race, we would also win the Scottish Cup and the Ibrox side would finish third, you would have taken that.

You would not merely have taken it. You would have jumped on the person who offered it and given them the biggest hug you have ever given anyone in your life.

You would not have needed to know every in and out of the journey.

With “third manager of the season” included, you would have been entitled to believe we were deep in trouble at some point. A final-day title win is about as nail-biting as it gets, but with the knowledge that we would get there, when the result was all that mattered, you would have accepted it. Well when the history books record the verdict it will be.

We have had so many bad moments this season. So many dark days. In the darkness of the Wilfried Nancy experiment, I was ready to write the whole thing off. I had written the whole thing off. There have been other hard times along the way.

But here we are. Three wins from another title.

This time next week, we will know how the story ends and I cannot remember a bigger week in our recent history. I cannot remember a seven-day period where so much was at stake.

Yes, we talked before about two trips to Ibrox, a trip to Aberdeen and a trip to Stuttgart all coming hot on the heels of one another. That was exhausting.

That was supposed to break this team.

It did not break this team. In fact, there’s an argument for saying that it was the spell that fortified this team like nothing else would have been able to. It gave them back their swagger and their confidence. It showed we had the steel.

This is on a whole different level. But we approach it with confidence. We approach it without fear. All the fear is on the other side, at Hearts.

If we win today, that fear is going to consume them.

Martin O’Neill and his players have dragged us all the way to the line. We have the best manager. We have the best squad. We have the best individual talents. For two of the three games left, we will have the best fans in the country, in the most raucous atmosphere in European football to cheer these players over the line.

Inside the cauldron of Celtic Park, we are going to cook up one hell of an end to this race. Starting today. Let’s get it on.

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