It hasn’t escaped Celtic supporters’ attention that over the last month or so Rangers boss Philippe Clement has insisted on talking about an imaginary league table rather than the real one.
In media conferences, Clement spoke about the fact that Rangers have picked up more points than Celtic since his arrival as if that is what matters. [PLZ Soccer]
The gap to Celtic was seven points when he was appointed in the wake of Michael Beale’s dreadful start to the season. When questioned about slipping behind the Bhoys in the title race, he used this as a defence mechanism.
Well, that crumb of comfort has quickly disintegrated after Saturday’s action in the Scottish Premiership. It turns out that Celtic were winners of the Clement Cup, too.
As the Bhoys celebrated a superb trophy day at Paradise, Rangers were toiling away to Hearts at Tynecastle and let a 3-1 lead slip to an eventual 3-3 draw.
Celtic end Scottish Premiership season 8 points clear of Rangers
Celtic finished the league season on a mighty 93 points, eight clear of second-placed Rangers on 85. That’s a bigger margin of victory than in each of the last two campaigns and a larger gap than when the Belgian arrived.
It’s always been odd for Clement to fall back on this argument considering he has yet to beat the Bhoys and his side collapsed so embarrassingly against Dundee and Kilmarnock. Prove yourself on the pitch, don’t come up with justifications off of it.
Maybe now some will wake up to the reality that after 30 league games in charge, he has a worse points record than both Beale and Giovanni van Bronckhorst had at the same milestone.
Or maybe he’ll face the same scrutiny as Brendan Rodgers has at various points this season, considering the Ibrox side have conceded 18 goals in their last 10 league matches, from which they’ve taken just 15 points. Then again, maybe not.
Celtic will have another chance to assert their dominance in next week’s Scottish Cup final. In a one-off game anything can happen and Rodgers won’t be taking Rangers lightly, far from it.
However, it’s undeniable that over the course of the entire season – or since October as some would prefer – Celtic have been the best team in Scotland.