View: Celtic icon right to think Rangers are still Scottish Premiership title favourites

Celtic icon Peter Grant believes that Rangers are the favourites to win the Scottish Premiership title over the Hoops and Hearts.

With just two games remaining until the Scottish Premiership splits, Rangers are breathing down the necks of Hearts at the top of the table.

The gap currently sits at just three points, with Celtic two points further back in third, in what remains a wide open race to be crowed champions of Scotland for 2025-26.

Danny Rohl’s side would undoubtedly be rather sitting where Hearts are right now, but Gers are poised to leapfrog Derek McInnes’ team at a moment’s notice.

And, after Rangers’ 4-1 win over Aberdeen last weekend, confidence is growing around Ibrox that they’re destined to lift their first league title since 2021 in the coming weeks.

What has Peter Grant said about Rangers’ title chances?

Rohl has work to do at Rangers over the international break, as he looks to extract every last drop of ability and effort out of his current Gers crop.

However, he must still be fairly happy with Rangers’ position in the table heading into the final seven games, especially with how they’ve responded to their disappointing back-to-back Old Firm defeats.

And, speaking on The Go Radio Football Show, Celtic legend Grant believes that Rangers are the title favourites at this moment in time, which must be painful for him to admit given his Parkhead allegiances.

“Yes, I do (think Rangers are favourites). I’d rather be in Hearts’ position, but I just think Rangers for me,” Grant said.

“I think their players have had a lot of criticism, they’ve been able to handle that type of pressure as it’s went along this season, picking up results under Danny Rohl.

“Hearts, it’s going to be interesting. When Rangers play before them at any time, putting that little bit of extra pressure on them. People say it doesn’t count, please believe me, it counts.

“I don’t think Celtic have got any wriggle room now. Any wriggle room they had has gone, for me.”

Why Rangers are the favourites over Celtic and Hearts

Grant is right, Rangers should still be considered the favourites to win the Scottish Premiership for a number of reasons.

Firstly, Hearts have been scraping a lot of 1-0 wins in recent weeks, and in fact, each one of their last four victories has been by that scoreline.

However, those have been against Dundee, Aberdeen, Falkirk and Hibernian respectively, and so when the split happens and they’re forced to play better teams, their luck in this regard may run out.

Meanwhile, when Rangers have been winning recently, they’ve been comfortably putting sides to the sword, with 4-1’s, 5-1’s, 3-0’s and a 4-2 win over Hearts respectively.

As per Sofascore, Rangers have only missed 67 big chances this season compared to Celtic’s 75, whilst Hearts have missed just 50, but have only created 78 respectively.

Gers’ 6.1 shots on target per game is also better than both Celtic’s 5.6 and Hearts’ 5.1, whilst they’re also far clear of them two for successful dribbles per game too, with their 9.5 trumping Celtic’s 6.7 and Hearts’ 6.0 respectively.

Rangers also remain unbeaten against Celtic in the Premiership this season, and have the psychological advantage of a 3-1 win at Parkhead back in November last year.

Meanwhile, they’ve shown they’re a better team than Hearts with the 4-2 win at Ibrox on 15 February, and so there’s ample evidence to suggest that Rangers should still be considered the favourites to lift the title.

Updated 24/7 with expert analysis from the heart of Govan.