It’s easy to get carried away after one bad result, but it really did feel like losing 2-1 at home to Rangers last year was the beginning of a big momentum change.
Celtic just looked so poor on the day and Steven Gerrard’s team had been in incredible form before then, so it looked like the league title might finally slip away from Parkhead.
Of course that now seems ridiculous when you look at the league table, as Celtic have stormed into a 13 point lead at the top and the quadruple treble seems inevitable.
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RTE reported on some comments from Nir Bitton, and it’s clear that some of the players felt everyone wanted them to fail, but it also sounds like that was used as motivation to turn things around.
The Israeli said: “I think after the Old Firm game before the winter break everyone killed us, everyone wanted us to fail.”
“But it’s a winning mentality around the dressing room, around the club. It is the belief. And we knew that if we’re going to do the things right, we’re going to come back stronger.”
“We were very disappointed to drop points on Wednesday night. We gave away two goals that put us under pressure for no reason.”
“We need to cut it from the next games and need to make sure that we win the league as soon as possible. We were 12 points ahead before so one more point, it’s OK. It’s a long way to go.”
It’s an interesting way to look at things and it shows why this team has dominated so much in recent years – while a lot of fans and pundits were losing their minds over one game, the squad seemed to understand there was a long way to go.
It was a chastening event at the time, but it does feel like that loss in December was the best thing that could’ve happened to Celtic this season.
