Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers denied that his side had handed the initiative in the Premiership title race to Rangers after their disappointing draw at Pittodrie, saying that his men are still well in a fight that has a long way to go yet.

The points that the champions spilled meant that Rangers could draw level with them at the top of the table providing they went on to beat Livingston at Ibrox later in the day and then win their game in hand against Ross County.

But Rodgers isn’t worried about his team losing momentum and being reeled in by their rivals just yet.

“Have we handed the initiative to Rangers? No, not at all,” Rodgers said.

“Listen, there’s still a long way to go and many points to fight for. We just have to focus on ourselves and find a greater consistency.

“Before the break, we had good performances with speed in our game. We need that in every game.

“Last week we weren’t so good but won. Today we weren’t so good and ended up with a draw.

“It’s just about finding a consistent level again because we’re dropping too many points.

“I’d never say a point here is a good result. I always come here to win, as I’ve always done as Celtic manager.

“I always expect to do that. I can never say I’ll take the point, I expect to win.

“We were OK in the first half and created opportunities but we just needed to be more clinical.

“You could sense Aberdeen’s results haven’t gone so well, their confidence was maybe low - so we had to exploit that but didn’t do it.

“In the second half we weren’t aggressive enough. When you’re playing against that type of team, you have to be good on first, second and third balls, then settle the game. And you have to stop counter attacks.

“For the goal we lost we were loose with our pass and they broke through with too much ease. We didn’t defend what their striker does best, he wants to come in on his left foot.

“So that was really disappointing.”