Celtic carry derby pressure this time around as Rangers face act of vandalism on their history

Asserting the pressure remains all on the home team is not a deliberately contrary or provocative statement. Rather, it is a measure of just how moderate and run-of-the-mill Rangers have become. Glasgow derby, Old Firm derby, call it what you will: how can Celtic, who confirmed the capture of £11 million midfielder Arne Engels on Friday night, possibly stuff this up? 

“People can sometimes assume that when you’re doing well, and everything is going great, that you just turn up and win,” countered manager Brendan Rodgers in his pre-match press conference. “That’s a very dangerous way to think.” He cited the “emotional” nature of a special fixture.

All well and good of course, but under Rodgers it has tended to be a game where Celtic turn up and win. Granted, it’s a derby, and we all know where we are obligated to fling the form book. But Celtic failing to prevail in the first Old Firm derby of the season borders on the unthinkable, which of course creates its own form of tension.  

There won’t be one Celtic fan making their way to Parkhead on Sunday who isn’t fully confident of victory. Likewise, there won’t be one who hasn't fallen prey to a niggling feeling: what if? What if Celtic don’t turn up? What if Rangers can frustrate their great rivals and perhaps even take the game to them, as they did, to an extent, on the last occasion the teams met in May at Hampden. 

That, though, finished the way these clashes so often do these days, with Celtic fans celebrating. Adam Idah's late winner secured the Scottish Cup on the 57th anniversary of Celtic's European Cup win in Lisbon.  

There is no trophy at stake on Sunday afternoon. What there is, though, is something arguably greater. Some, including Jose Mourinho, might refer to it as football heritage. Glasgow bragging rights stretching all the way back to 1888 lie in the balance, with both teams currently level-pegging on 169 wins each. As well as drawing five points clear of their rivals with a win tomorrow, Celtic can inch ahead of them in history.

What a blow this would represent to Rangers' pride. What a stark portrayal of the vandalism wrought upon the club by a succession of hubristic and incompetent owners. Even though it looked like progress was being made on that front, the Ibrox fans have been let down by the current incumbents. Ahead of their trip into enemy territory on Sunday morning, Rangers will be given a rousing send-off by their fans from a stadium they last played at on 14 May against Dundee. 

Delayed renovation work continues at a pace in a bid to ensure the forthcoming League Cup quarter final against the same team can take place at Ibrox. But this is the unsettled background as Rangers target a first win in front of fans at Parkhead since 2019. It's just as well the first Old Firm derby was always scheduled to be away. Surrendering home advantage in this fixture might have tested fans' patience beyond breaking point, if it isn't there already.

So much seems to be in the balance at present. So much of Rangers' admittedly sometimes self-proclaimed identity seems imperilled - how can they claim to be the most successful team in the world when they are not even top dogs in their own city? Never mind the Copland Road stand, an entire edifice is crumbling. Celtic are targeting a 55th title win – the number Rangers reached under Steven Gerrard and have failed to add to since. Both clubs, meanwhile, are locked on 118 trophies.

In the week of a controversy over Sir Keir Starmer removing a portrait of Margaret Thatcher from the hallway in No.10 Downing Street, another changing of the guard could be imminent. Celtic are facing Rangers under a Labour government for the first time since 4 May 2010, when goals from Lee Naylor and Marc-Antoine Fortune gave the hosts a 2-1 victory at Parkhead over visitors who were already over the line in terms of the league championship. That was that kind of inconsequential win on which Rangers must these days sustain themselves. 

Their last win in this fixture was as emphatic as it was meaningless – Celtic had secured the league title six days before falling 3-0 to Ibrox in Michael Beale's penultimate Old Firm match. Todd Cantwell was one of the goalscorers.

He has now swapped the Old Firm derby for an East Lancashire one, with the player expected to make his debut for Blackburn Rovers in this afternoon's clash at Burnley. He is one in a long line of Rangers players of whom so much was expected and yet who proved so patently ill-equipped to take the fight to Celtic. 

Indeed, is there a single player in the Rangers line-up who could reasonably to be picked over their Celtic equivalent in a joint XI? Not for this correspondent. Cyriel Dessers might trump Idah for the centre-forward shirt in the unlikely event of a merging of forces.

With so much going on player-recruitment wise, Rodgers was remaining understandably tight-lipped on Friday on team selection matters, but Idah is unlikely to start. And who out of Dessers and Kyogo Furuhashi would anyone want spearheading an attack? Manchester City were not contemplating swooping for Dessers, put it that way.

Despite his shoulder seeming perpetually in danger of popping out, what’s the betting Kyogo opens his account for the season and emerges as the match winner once again? It’s vulnerable Rangers whose crutches are at risk of being kicked from under them on a potentially momentous afternoon for Old Firm oneupmanship.