The Scottish Premier League is set to kick off once again this weekend, with Celtic, once again, being viewed as the clear favourites to take home the title – and is anyone really all too surprised by that? They play with a ruthless efficiency that isn’t seen throughout the rest of Scottish football, and in Brendan Rodgers, they’ve got a hungry young manager who has been proven to find success wherever he’s gone, which is something that some fans continue to dispute.

As we look ahead to the season, the looming presence of Rangers with their new manager Steven Gerrard have been seen as a potential threat to the ‘dynasty’ that they seem to be building. Alas, whilst they should still take their bitter rivals seriously, it doesn’t really feel like there’s much of a chance that Rangers could make a serious push under an inexperienced manager like Gerrard.

They’ll likely be able to stroll through to the latter stages of the Scottish Cup, but it shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as the worst thing in the world if they get knocked out between the quarter-finals and the final itself. Why? Because the Champions League should be seen as their major priority, as all of their good work in Scottish football will be for nothing if they can’t make it count against some of the best sides in Europe.

They managed to dispatch of Rosenborg pretty handily over the course of two legs, which some will say isn’t a good indication of what they can do given the quality of the Norwegian top division.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjRdZkSmmLc

Alas, we’ll discover what they’re really capable of against AEK Athens – which might sound odd given that they’re also not considered to be in a decent league, but it’s all about being what’s in front of you.

In terms of the Scottish Premier League itself, though, Celtic will get back underway against Livingston in a game that they shouldn’t take lightly. The visitors have been through a great deal over the course of the last few years and that’s something they’ve carried with them, to the point where they should be viewed as being pretty dangerous by anyone and everyone in this division.

Celtic’s key to victory here will be to ensure that they don’t get frustrated and dragged down by the overall quality of Livingston’s line-up, because while they can still play good football, Celtic are on a whole other level – which you could argue is one of the few pieces of evidence that the Scottish Premier League doesn’t really compare to other major European leagues in terms of the standard of play.

Every single season Celtic’s aim should be to set the tempo from the word go, to the point where the likes of Rangers and Aberdeen aren’t given a chance to build any kind of real momentum. Brendan Rodgers seems to be succeeding when it comes to implementing that idea into their gameplay, and they tend to play with a certain level of freedom and confidence because of it. We’re going to predict a comfortable 2-0 win for Celtic in this one, as they aim to make strides in every department this season.

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