Rangers are top of the Scottish Premiership this morning, and for the first time all season. A 3-1 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox on Saturday lifted Derek McInnes’s side above Celtic by a single point, the reward for a run of results that looked unthinkable when the manager arrived at the club in the summer.
It may not last the day. Celtic have a game in hand and travel to Motherwell this afternoon knowing that three points at Fir Park would put them back on top before Rangers have even kicked a ball this weekend. That is the strange, slightly unsatisfying nature of being top of a league with a fixture still to play elsewhere, but it does not take anything away from what Rangers have built over the last month and a half.
How Rangers got the job done
Ryan Naderi did the damage that mattered most, scoring twice either side of a Kevin Kelsy goal to put Rangers 3-0 up inside the first half. His opener was a header from a James Penrice delivery, the kind of near post finish that sets a tone early, before Kelsy added a second from close range. Naderi’s second, a flicked finish off a Djeidi Gassama shot, completed a first half that Kilmarnock had no real answer for.
Kilmarnock, who remain bottom of the table after eight matches, did at least find some late pride through Nicky Clescenco, whose consolation goal with time running out denied Ivor Pandur a clean sheet. Dujon Sterling was taken off for Rangers at half time, with Kosta Nedeljkovic coming on, and Alfredo Morelos hit the bar and had a goal ruled out as Rangers pushed for a fourth without ever looking troubled at the other end.
McInnes was honest afterwards about a performance that did not always match the scoreline. Speaking to STV Sport, he pointed to a disjointed display despite the result: “We have to be honest, for long spells we looked like a team that hadn’t been together for the last three weeks.” But he was not about to let any of that overshadow where the three points had taken his team. “The fact we went top of the league, we shouldn’t lose sight of that,” he said. “We’ve got the job done, and credit the players for digging deep and getting three points.”
Why Celtic can answer back within hours
What makes this particular moment at the top of the table so fragile is straightforward arithmetic. Rangers sit on 19 points from eight games. Celtic, the defending champions, have 18 points from seven, meaning Martin O’Neill’s side can move back above Rangers with a win at Fir Park without Rangers getting the chance to respond until the next round of fixtures.
Motherwell have not had the easiest start to the season themselves, sitting in the bottom half of the table, and Celtic will go into the match as clear favourites to restore their position at the summit. If they do, the league returns to where it has sat for most of the campaign so far, with Celtic marginally ahead and Rangers chasing. If they do not, Rangers will wake up on Monday having spent a full round of fixtures as the team to catch, which matters for confidence even if the league table itself settles back into a familiar shape by Tuesday.
Either way, the Premiership has a title race worth watching again, something that has not always been true in recent seasons. Heart of Midlothian’s 5-0 win over St Mirren on Saturday lifted them to third, now within three points of Rangers, which adds a little more interest further down the table too.
The bigger picture at Ibrox
It is worth remembering how recently this would have seemed an unlikely morning for Rangers to be having. McInnes took over at Ibrox in the summer following Danny Rohl’s departure, and his early weeks in the job were not smooth, including a run of poor form and a European exit that left supporters questioning the appointment. What has followed since has been a sustained response, built on results rather than promises, with wins piling up including victories over Celtic along the way.
Saturday’s win was Rangers’ sixth straight in the league, a sequence that has quietly turned a team written off after a miserable start into the side sitting above the champions. There is no prize for being top of the table in October, and McInnes himself has been careful not to get carried away publicly. But momentum matters in a title race, and Rangers have built plenty of it at exactly the moment Celtic have slowed just enough to be caught.
Where this leaves things
None of this settles anything. Celtic’s trip to Fir Park this afternoon could put the league back to where most people expected it to sit after the summer, or it could hand Rangers a second week at the top and turn a one point gap into something that starts to look like genuine pressure on the champions. What is clear is that a title race many assumed would be a formality for Celtic now has some real tension to it, with eight games gone and the margins between the top two as tight as they have been in years.
For Rangers, the job this morning is simple: enjoy being top while it lasts, and be ready to go again if Celtic do what champions usually do. For Celtic, the response starts in a few hours at Fir Park, with the knowledge that anything other than victory leaves Rangers exactly where McInnes wants them to be.
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