Derek McInnes has been handed a Rangers gift by Celtic

What is much clear this season is neither Rangers nor Celtic are any good.

Let’s be bold and get that out of the way.

Both sides of the Old Firm have deteriorated in the past 15 years and while Celtic have a monopoly on the league titles, they can thank an unprecedentedly bad Rangers for that.

This past 15 years have been the worst in Rangers’ glorious history, and Celtic have taken advantage of that.

They haven’t improved, they’ve sat like stagnant pigs, feasting on easy pickings and not bothering to evolve. And now they’re going backwards.

A Rangers gift from Celtic

Meanwhile Rangers have improved from 2012’s reset, but remain hugely off the standards of old. One only has to be reminded of how it used to be by Graeme Souness’ book My Rangers. A fantastic but depressingly bittersweet read at times. More on that later.

And as such while Rangers stumble along and have two draws in the past three matches, well now Celtic have found a way to be worse, a draw and a loss in their last 2.

The reality is, whoever wins this Premiership title is the one to win this war of attrition.

We can’t even entirely count Hearts out.

As Rangers fans we want our team to win, but Derek McInnes is far from convincing. The same can be said for O’Neill at Celtic. The colossus Celtic he used to manage isn’t there, and it’s a bumbling mess now.

And it really is up to McInnes to take advantage of this monumental slip up in the east. Celtic arrogantly expected to dispatch Falkirk with comfort, and were atrocious.

Rangers weren’t a lot better at Tynecastle, but they were given a get out of jail card then, and Celtic have gifted McInnes a real treat as well in Falkirk.

The 3 points are Rangers’ game in hand, and will become relevant late this month when the league match with the Dons was rescheduled for the cup semi.

So for now, that is a big insurance buffer for Rangers, although it is a few weeks away. And the Dons are never an easy 3 points.

But the fact is Celtic have lost their relentlessness. They’ve won 9 of 12, and lost 2, drawing one. Celtic are clearly not the unstoppable force many, Ibrox Noise, thought they would be. Especially under MON.

It turns out this league title’s destination is anyone’s guess.

Expect many more plot twists as we approach the year’s turnaround.