Rangers travel across the M8 to the capital tonight to take on a resurgent Hibernian side that has come through the other side of two derby hammerings. The victory over Aberdeen at home last month was seemingly the platform that saved Lee Johnson’s job and has seen form significantly improve.
Ironically, Hibs have been playing without Kevin Nisbet and Martin Boyle through injury and lost Ryan Porteous to Watford in the January transfer market, and yet, appear to be a more organised team as a result. In Elie Youan they have found a player, with five goals in his last five league games, that seems to be thriving with the extra responsibility and both Connor Goldson and Ben Davies will have to be on their toes to deal with the France Under-21 international.
Johnson has been infinitely more positive in terms of his teams chances of success than he has been in the past about getting a result against Celtic and, as result, we should see a more open game – hopefully, this means that both Ryan Kent and Fashion Sakala will have more space to take advantage of.
It will be strange watching Alfredo Morelos play at Easter Road without a running battle against Porteous and the constant fear of a red card appearing from nowhere, despite having to make do with a place on the bench against Kilmarnock on Saturday, it would be a surprise if he doesn’t start in this one.
The nine point gap at the top of the table is what it is, Michael Beale inherited it and all he can do is keep chipping away and hope that Celtic slip up, the side effect is that, if we keep on winning, teams will start to lose the belief that they can take something off us.
A start like the one made at Ibrox would be a great way to dampen their spirits though.