Davie Hay: Easy Celtic win on cards to open, but Rangers will provide sterner test over campaign

The new-boys in the division will want to put on as good a show as possible, but it will be difficult for them and Celtic will probably expect to win by a few goals.

Kenny Miller is a man I admire and he had a fantastic career as a professional player, and if he takes that professionalism into management, then he may do well. But I fancy this match will be a baptism of fire for him and his team.

Celtic will of course be strong favourites for the league title again, and while you know there will be difficult games along the way, they fully merit that tag.

A lot will depend on how Rangers fare under their new management team, and it should be apparent quite early on whether or not they can mount any sort of serious challenge.

I think Rangers will improve under Steven Gerrard, but how much they improve remains to be seen. Added to that, I think Celtic are in an even better position in terms of their squad and how they are playing than last season.

The main difference may be that Celtic can’t afford some of the slackness that crept into their play at times last season, with a lot of draws at home in particular, and I think we will see less of those sorts of performances from Celtic.

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