Brendan Rodgers: Celtic 'our own worst enemy' in title race but league 'still in our hands'

Brendan Rodgers says Celtic have been their “own worst enemy” this season but insists the title race is “still very much in our hands” as they prepare for the business end of the campaign.

The champions currently trail league leaders Rangers by two points with ten games, including another two Old Firm derbies, still to be played.

Despite having a healthy lead at the top at the end of 2023, they had a shaky spell in December before a stuttering start to the new year led to them being leapfrogged by Philippe Clement’s resurgent side.

But in the last game and a half they have finally looked like they are picking up some form as the Premiership season reaches the “fun” part when the title will be decided.

After a strong second-half showing at Fir Park, when they came back from a goal-down at half-time to win 3-1, they blew Dundee away midweek with an emphatic 7-1 victory.

It’s Hearts at Tynecastle up next, and by the time the game on Sunday kicks-off, they could find themselves five points adrift if Rangers beat Motherwell when they play a day earlier.

However, if Clement’s side fail to beat the Steelmen at Ibrox, then Celtic will go back top if they can secure a victory in the capital.

And Rodgers is convinced that if his side play to their capabilities on a consistent basis for the rest of the season then they will have a good chance to retaining their Premiership crown.

He was delighted with the manner of the win against Dundee and is hopeful that they have now turned a corner in terms of the performance levels that have been lacking for large parts of the season so far.

Speaking on Friday, he said: “It was a high-level of performance (against Dundee) right from the off, everything felt really good in the game, the supporters were brilliant and really pushed the team, the players were never let themselves get comfortable in the game despite the score-line and kept pushing for more.

“And that’s the level of performance that we want.

“I have always felt that our biggest enemy this season is ourselves, if we perform to the level that we can do on a consistent basis then we are a very good team.

“It’s just about finding that consistency now and taking that performance into our next game.

“When you arrive at ten games to go then that is when the fun begins and that is when you are in the business end and that is what I am really looking forward to.

“We’ve had inconsistencies up until this point, but we are still very much there and it is still very much in our hands what we want to do.

“Tynecastle is always a difficult place to go, we played really well there last time and scored some really good goals, it’s always a great place to go as a Celtic manager or player, it’s always a good atmosphere and we want to continue with our level of performance there.”

Celtic play Hearts at Tynecastle at 12pm on Sunday.