rangers 0
celtic 1
Scorers: Celtic - Hartson (46)
In boxing, they have a saying: styles make fights. It basically means that fighters adopting dissimilar approaches - ie, a boxer against a slugger - can increase the entertainment value for spectators. It also means, of course, that there are some styles which certain champions, however great, are never comfortable with.
Muhammad Ali, for instance, convincingly outfoxed and outboxed the sport's biggest hitters in Earnie Shavers and George Foreman. Both men blew Ken Norton away in one and two rounds respectively yet Ali always struggled against the former US Marine, losing their first bout and winning their two subsequent contests on controversial points decisions.
So it is in football. Alex McLeish's early dominance in Old Firm fixtures could be attributed, at least partially, to his decision to persevere with his favoured 3-5-2 formation, which left Johan Mjallby exposed to
the pace of Peter Lovenkrands, who rattled in half a dozen vital goals. However, a switch to a back four at Ibrox in April saw Celtic win 2-1.
McLeish, meanwhile, was rightly hailed last midweek for having chosen the correct tactics against Panathinaikos in Athens and should have been rewarded by more than the one point his team took. This morning, though, it's back to the drawing board.
On Saturday, he deployed the identical starting eleven in the same formation as at the Apostolis Nikolaidis Stadium and not only did it not work as well, it simply didn't work at all.
Didier Agathe, selfless as ever, played almost the entire match at right-back, effectively negating Lovenkrands' most potent weapon. The Dane switched wings in the second half but was no more productive on the right flank.
Nuno Capucho, who began the match there, lasted only 51 minutes, contributing nothing of note. Following several lack-lustre displays (Athens included) it would seem, even at this early stage of his Rangers career, that the winger is doomed to be labelled with the tag ''luxury player.''
The former FC Porto man, who famously ripped Celtic's rearguard to shreds in the Champions League two years ago, looked a different player entirely here. His shoulder-shrugging demeanour did not sit well with home supporters in the cranked up frenzy of a top-of-the table clash.
A player who can appear laid-back when things are going well can easily be described as lazy when they are not and Capucho's seeming unwillingness to at least match the work-rate of others led to a considerable amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Celtic, by contrast, had no such failures. They came with a prepared strategy which was, essentially, to play a pressing game, allowing the opposition possession while denying them space. By doing so, they could suck Rangers forward and strike on the counter-attack.
Like endowments, this plan was not entirely risk-free but, unlike the majority of the former, it paid off. Celtic were helped greatly by the titanic performance of Chris Sutton alongside Stanislav Varga in the heart of their defence. Rangers' lack of aerial threat meant it soon became evident that the string of hopeful high balls slung into Celtic's penalty area were being gobbled up by the pair with
the ease and enthusiasm with which elephants devour buns.
Their lack of success with that ploy forced Rangers to keep the ball on the ground but they found the massed ranks of the opposing defence impassable, with Neil Lennon marauding in front of his defence like a sentinel, shutting off angles and denying entry to all comers. As a result, the champions' task proved as difficult as driving the wrong way up the Champs Elysees.
Burdened with the onus of creating, Rangers struggled to summon up the guile necessary to carve out openings. With their wide men rendered toothless, the responsibility fell on the shoulders of Emerson and Mikel Arteta. The Brazilian, with a dazzling piece of trickery, came closest to doing the needful in the 18th minute but his netbound shot was deflected over by Sutton.
His subtle promptings sporadically threatened to create havoc but with Michael Mols and Shota Arveladze well policed and not performing to the peak of their potency in any case, it was all for naught. Unfortunately for the home side, substitute Egil Ostenstad, while obviously ring-rusty, exhibited few signs that he possesses a predator's instincts. Emerson tired after an hour or so, further reducing Rangers' options, but Arteta had also flagged after a bright start.
While attempting to offload him during the summer, Rangers claimed that the Spaniard was unhappy at being denied Barry Ferguson's playmaker role. However, that desire was rarely in evidence on Saturday. Too often, especially in the final third of this match, he found himself on the periphery of proceedings. Even in injury time, with the seconds and the points slipping away, he and his team-mates were content to play square passes while Celtic squeezed ten men behind the ball.
The new Bank of Scotland Premierleague leaders were content with that state of affairs, as they had been for most of the afternoon. They had created the best openings of a flat opening 45 minutes, with Stefan Klos - Rangers' best player for the second home match in a row - saving well from Alan Thompson and John Hartson.
When Zurab Khizanishvili (who, along with Henning Berg and Michael Ball, also deserve pass marks) deflected Hartson's cross over Klos and into the net, there may have been 45 minutes remaining but there can have been few present who did not realise that the outcome had already been decided.
While Klos subsequently did well to frustrate Stilian Petrov (who should have scored when one-on-one with the German but was cleverly diverted to safety by him instead), Magnus Hedman did not have a single save to make, an astonishing statistic for an away goalkeeper in this encounter.
Otherwise, Jackie McNamara was quietly effective as usual, Hartson and Henrik Larsson gave Rangers all the trouble they could handle and Liam Miller, who hadn't started a league match prior to the start of this campaign, looked the most comfortable of the debutants.
The balance of power has shifted once again, then, but the only prediction which can be safely made at this stage is that this season's title race could be almost as intriguing as its predecessor.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article