In a dramatic season in the Scottish Premiership, the reigning champions finally look well placed to retain the trophy
After the weekend’s matches, Celtic now appear to be the surprising favourites to retain the Scottish Premiership title. With Hearts losing at Kilmarnock and the Hoops beating Motherwell at home, Celtic have narrowed the gap on the Edinburgh side to just two points.
That and the run of games in the eight remaining fixtures this season have prompted many bookmakers to make Celtic the favourites for the title after Hearts led the way for so long in the odds to take the league trophy.
Just a few weeks ago, Celtic trailed Hearts by six points and sat in third place, but the momentum seems to be swinging in their favour.
Celtic’s resurgence or Hearts faltering?
Hearts have been making international headlines this season, leading the way in Scotland for most of the season and presenting a genuine challenge to the established order for the first time in many years.
Aberdeen finished second in 2017/18 and 2016/17, while Hearts themselves finished second in 2005/06 (with Celtic first and Rangers third), but on none of those occasions did the non-Glasgow challenger sustain such a serious title bid this deep into the season.
All season, the talk has been of whether Hearts could keep it up, when they would start to fade away. Indeed, even the underlying data on xG and xPts suggested that they were overperforming, so it seemed inevitable that they would start to regress to the mean.
And yet, it didn’t happen. Hearts remained top of the league at the turn of the year and began 2026 strongly, going on a five-game unbeaten run to hush the doubters. However, of the six games since then, they have lost three, to St Mirren, Rangers and Kilmarnock.
As Hearts began to show signs of weakness, Celtic have stumbled towards the consistency they have lacked all season. It has been a chaotic campaign for the Bhoys with three managerial changes and instability in the squad, but since Martin O’Neill took charge for the second time this season in January, the team have lost just once in the league.
Suggested Articles
Celtic beginning to believe
It’s not just the results, though, it’s the belief that appears to be creeping back to where it seemed to have no right to. Some would say that’s the never-say-die spirit of champions as despite all the setbacks, turmoil and infighting (Celtic’s board are at war with the club’s main ultras group, for example, while a fans’ Collective has been staging protests and boycotts against the board’s handling of the club for much of the season), Celtic are still there and very much alive.
That belief must be in large part fuelled by two dogged performances at Ibrox this month: first, a comeback in the league fixture to salvage a point when it looked like Rangers had the game buried in the first half; and then a victory on penalties in the Scottish Cup quarter final.
Add to that the weekend’s victory against Motherwell, who have been quietly very impressive this season and rightly earning plaudits that in any other season would be given greater protagonism, and Celtic are riding a wave of unexpected optimism as the contenders stare down the barrel of the business end of the season.
With eight games to play, it seems the odds slightly favour Celtic, particularly when you consider the shape of the post-split fixtures.
While there are still three games to play before the split, Celtic already know that they will play both Rangers and Hearts at home, having already played them away twice, which could be a massive advantage in the three-way title race.
Most competitive title race since 1998
Whatever happens between now and the end of May, this has already been one of the most exciting Scottish Premiership seasons in living memory. When the dust settles, all the contenders will look back and analyse things calmly, but right now, after 30 games played, this is the closest distance between the top three since 1998.
In that 1997/98 season, after 30 games played, Celtic were three points ahead of Hearts and two ahead of Rangers. Identical gaps between the top three as today, only with the order shuffled.
That season, it was the leaders Celtic who saw it out and finished two points ahead of Rangers and seven ahead of Hearts. That trophy, of course, was a significant one as it ended Rangers’ run of nine consecutive titles.