Scottish Premiership title race: Why playing first matters for Hearts, Rangers and Celtic in battle for top-spot | Football News

Another weekend, another twist in the title race.

After Hearts and Rangers took care of business on Saturday, champions Celtic fell to defeat away to Dundee United on Sunday.

Perhaps not predictable, but certainly probable.

The Scottish Premiership’s current top three have only all won on the same weekend once this season – on the weekend of January 10/11.

Coincidentally, they faced the same three teams they met just last weekend – Dundee, Aberdeen and Dundee United.

There’s a decent chance that trend could continue too. Due to post-split head-to-heads, at least one of the top three are guaranteed to drop points in three of the remaining seven gameweeks.

So strap in, the home straight is set to be a bumpy ride.

Does playing first matter?

One of the most obvious pre-match questions asked of a manager involved in a title race concerns the idea of ‘putting pressure’ on rivals when playing before them. Or the inverse of that, is there added pressure to respond when playing afterwards?

Usually, they are briefed to tell you that they only focus on their own game, and they can’t control what happens elsewhere.

But that’s only partly true.

Believe me, players do check scores, watch games, and read league tables.

You’d be correct to say they can’t control what happens in other matches, though they can still influence them.

As evidenced by a consistent pattern of faltering follow-up acts, the team who plays first usually has an advantage:

• The obvious one – Celtic lost to Dundee United on Sunday after Hearts and Rangers won on Saturday.
• Hearts lost to Kilmarnock last Saturday evening after Celtic beat Motherwell in the afternoon.
• The previous gameweek before that, the Old Firm clubs drew with each other after Hearts beat Aberdeen.
• And the week before that, Hearts beat Falkirk on the Saturday before Rangers were held to a draw by Livingston and Celtic lost to Hibernian on the Sunday.

I could go on and on. The last time there were no weekend slip-ups from the sides playing later was on the weekend of January 10/11 – the only one in which all three teams won.

This is psychology, not coincidence.

Whether it directly puts more pressure on the players or not, anyone who has been inside one of the grounds of those teams playing catch-up can feel the palpable tension and angst from the stands.

The post-split fixtures are yet to be confirmed, so we cannot fully examine to what extent fixture sequencing may influence the title race. However, if this trend continues, all three teams could spill points before the split.

Rangers play first after the international break, hosting Dundee United at home on Saturday April 4.

Meaning, by the time leaders Hearts go to Livingston at 2pm on Sunday April 12 – live on Sky Sports – they could find themselves knocked off top spot for the first time since September.

Champions Celtic then visit Dundee at 4.30pm – also live on Sky Sports – and could be eight points behind by kick-off.

The following weekend, it will be Rangers’ turn to respond as they visit Falkirk – live on Sky Sports on April 12 – after both Hearts and Celtic play at home the previous day.

Does title-winning experience count?

Celtic are the furthest behind of the three at this stage but benefit from having the greatest depth of title-winning experience among their ranks.

James Forrest is the club’s most-decorated player in its history, while Callum McGregor has captained the side to four consecutive Scottish Premierships. Having won 13 and 10 top-flight titles respectively, they should quite rightfully accept the ‘serial winners’ tag.

There are 62 Scottish top-flight league winners’ medals in the Celtic dressing room, 73 if you include Martin O’Neill and his coaching staff.

Meanwhile, 43-year-old goalkeeper Craig Gordon is Hearts’ sole title-winner – lifting the trophy five times with Celtic – and Rangers captain James Tavernier is the only player at Ibrox who boasts a medal.

Those numbers are hardly a surprise, the champions have come out on top in 13 out of the last 14 seasons, so their credentials are unquestionable.

But cantering to countless trophies is one thing, navigating a title race is another.

For all their experience, this Celtic team have never found themselves in this position before. The hunted have never been the hunters.

This is the first time they haven’t been top at this stage since Rangers last won the title in 2021, and they haven’t been outside the top two after 31 games since 1995.

In fact, it’s been 17 years since the team that led at this point last relinquished the championship when Gordon Strachan’s Celtic gave up a three-point advantage on Walter Smith’s Rangers in 2009.

That being said, this team has seen off moderate challenges to the Premiership throne from their Old Firm rivals in 2023/24 under Philippe Clement and Giovanni van Bronckhorst in 2021/22, so it’s unfair to say they’ve never experienced a ‘title race’ as such.

But coming from behind is a new challenge for Scotland’s perennial winners, and for their legendary veteran manager, whose three title triumphs in the early 2000s were all by significant margins of at least 15 points.

In the two seasons O’Neill failed to win the league during his first spell, Rangers won it on the final day of the season.

As the most exciting title race in decades nears its conclusion, can Celtic’s ‘mentality monsters’ still prevail when backed into a corner?