Chris Sutton description of Celtic’s derby day draw at Ibrox | OneFootball

Chris Sutton described Celtic’s derby day dross draw with theRangers at the weekend as a missed opportunity…

theRangers v Celtic,31 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

The pundit believes his old club fell short of doing what was needed to win at Ibrox and criticised the Hoops’ failure to overcome what he saw as a “rank Rangers side.” Chris is not wrong. This was another abysmal Celtic attacking display.

Both teams failed to create a genuine scoring opportunity in the goalless draw, with Sutton labelling them both as merely average.

It’s difficult to argue against this being the case. From Celtic’s point of view, what on earth has happened to the creative, fast spark from 12 months ago? The team looks entirely lost.

Daizen Maeda theRangers v Celtic, 31 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

In ‘Xg’ terms; theRangers (0.15) and Celtic (0.17) produced just 0.32 expected goals between them in Sunday’s derby — an incredibly poor return by any standard. It also stands as the lowest combined xG recorded in a Premiership fixture since the metric was introduced in the 2019-20 campaign.

For our older readers, this effectively means both teams were chronic in the final third. And you could have saw that through the eyes test.

Taking to X on Sunday to criticise Celtic’s ineffective 93 minutes of football, Sutton said: “Big chance missed for Celtic against a rank Rangers team. Didn’t do enough to win it. Nowhere near enough in the final third from Celtic. A lack of combination play and understanding.

Michel-Ange Balikwisha. theRangers v Celtic,31 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Celtic went the entire first half without registering a shot on target, marking their first opening period without an attempt in a Scottish Premiership game since November 2017 against Ross County in Dingwall. This is against an Ibrox side who are off to their worst league start in 42 years…

Speaking post-match, Brendan Rodgers was pretty scathing of his current squad who looked totally toothless. The Celtic boss said: “I thought it was a poor game, if I’m being brutally honest. The positive for us being we haven’t given away much over the course of pre-season, and today I don’t think we had a shot against us on target.”

“So defensively, we’ve been good and solid and showed lots of endeavour, which is great. But the actual quality in the game was not at the level I’d expect a Celtic team to be. So that was a disappointment, but I felt overall, the quality of the game wasn’t at a high enough level.”

Rodgers added: “Sadly, it’s about the profile of player. I think that it’s very clear on that. As I said, we’re getting lots of work, guys are working well and working hard. And sometimes in teams, whenever you don’t quite have that feeling going into a game that you can score goals, and like we were this period last year, which was plentiful.”

theRangers v Celtic,31 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

“So the team then goes in with a different energy and a different feeling, which then sparks everything off and brings that energy and that real game attitude that you want. When you’re lacking that, then that’s sometimes what you get.”

Conor Spence

Celtic in the Eighties – Out Now! In Celtic shops on Friday…

Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter, out now!

Celtic in the Eighties by the late, great David Potter is published this Friday 5 September by Celtic Star Books. All pre-ordered copies have now been signed by Celtic legend Danny McGrain who has also written the foreword for David Potter’s final book.

These copies have now been posted to everyone who has pre-ordered with copies being send all over the world. It’s been an incredible response, so thank you to each and every one of you who will be receiving your signed book shorty.

Celtic in the Eighties will be available in the Celtic superstore and all other club shops from Friday 5 September. And don’t forget that you can still purchase your copy from Celticstarbooks.com for same day postage. The next 30 orders will also receive a FREE copy of an earlier David Potter book, Alec McNair, Celtic’s Icicle then that wonderful David Potter book will be out of stock.

Order Celtic in the Eighties today, you’ll be glad you did, it’s a fabulous read!

Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter. Foreword by Danny McGrain. Published on Celtic Star Books on 5 September 2025. Click on image to pre-order.

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