Top of the League but “Celtic have got big problems,” Chris Sutton | OneFootball

Chris Sutton rubbishes Martin O’Neill’s claim that it was a close game, saying that the home defeat to the Rangers was men against boys…

Ryan Naderi of the Rangers celebrates scoring the only goal of the game during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and the Rangers at Celtic Park on September 20, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton believes that Celtic’s home defeat against the Rangers was “men against boys”.

Despite starting well enough, the Hoops crashed to a 1-0 defeat as they slumped to their third consecutive defeat, and their second Glasgow derby loss in seven days.

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill looks on during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and the Rangers at Celtic Park on September 20, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Celtic looked disjoined yet again, and appeared to be a team of players who didn’t know each other, leading to Sutton’s heavy criticism.

“Celtic have got big problems,” Chris Sutton

Sutton said on Sky Sports: “Celtic have got big problems. They were smashed by Rangers and that’s a concern. Knowing Martin, he’ll be greatly concerned. I don’t like to disagree with him, but it wasn’t a close game. There was a massive gulf between the teams.’

Sutton also stated that he can’t remember a Celtic side getting that much of a “doing” on home turf by an Ibrox side, and believes that the Hoops look very much like a team who don’t have a clue about what they are doing.

“I can’t actually remember a Celtic team getting such a doing at Celtic Park from a Rangers team, which happened today,” Sutton commented.  “It looked like Celtic were making it up as they went along.

“Rangers were better in every department. It was men against boys, it was the exact same as last week.”

Very harsh perhaps but both accurate and constructive criticism from the former Celtic hero. He’s right in a sense, but to say it was men against boys was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, and merely a case of the big man playing up for the cameras.

Celtic looking amateurish at the moment

The only side making Celtic look amateurish at the moment is Celtic. The problems we cause are all self inflicted as we seen last week at Ibrox, and in midweek against Ferencvaros. We make sides look better than they are, and that was the case again yesterday.

Kevin Kelsy of the Rangers shoots during the Sottish Premiership match between Celtic and the Rangers at Celtic Park on September 20, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Neither the Rangers yesterday or Ferencvaros on Thursday were the team causing Celtic significant problems, we were doing that to ourselves.  Conceding a equaliser in first half stoppage time after equalising in the 45th minute against Ferencvaros, Viljami Sinisalo failing to push the shot to the side yesterday causing the only goal of the game are just two examples.

We are clearly in a bit of a crisis at the moment, and  the coaching staff  have plenty of work to do to turn things around, but to me the gulf between us and them isn’t as bad as Sutton is suggesting.

Colby Donovan of Celtic vies with Djiedi Gassama of Rangers during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Glasgow Rangers at Celtic Park on September 20, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Celtic have more matters internally to worry about than thinking about the Rangers who correct me if I am wrong but are still two points behind the league leaders, CELTIC.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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