If you ask the bookies, Celtic are dead-certs. If you ask the fans - even the Rangers ones - the vast majority believe Celtic will win the first Old Firm clash of the season. Ask Brendan Rodgers, and predictably, the answer is a little more diplomatic.
That tiptoeing around what most would deem the obvious conclusion to this derby match though isn’t only about showing due respect to their opponent or toeing a public party line. It is as much about keeping his own players’ feet on the ground and their minds focused on the task at hand.
If the Celtic players go into Sunday’s match in front of 60,000 of their own supporters at Celtic Park believing the match is already won, chances are it might not be. Guarding against complacency then has been a key feature of preparations at Lennoxtown this week.
"You always expect the challenge,” Rodgers said.
“I think that people can sometimes assume that when you're doing well and everything's going great, that you'll just turn up and win. And that's a very dangerous way to think, and that's why at Celtic we never, ever do that.
“We're in a really, really good place as a team. From a football perspective, the level that we're playing at, with and without the ball, is really pleasing. But these are different games, these are emotional games.
“How we've always tried to handle these, is to focus on our performance. So, the players will be prepared really well all this week, and I think Rangers will be a tough game.
“Whatever number of games I've been involved in, I always treat it - and I ask the players - it's like your first game.
“The experience a lot of the guys have had in it is great, but you just can't assume that you just turn up and play these games and because whatever your record's been in the past, that will continue.
“You have to have a real focus and a real clarity on what it is you want to do, but I think we have a nice rhythm in that.
“For us, we prepare for a big game every single game we play, so our preparation is the same and it's been the same this week. Very focused, very detailed, giving clarity to the players, not being overly tense in the preparation but just bringing that calmness to it all.
“Then we look to deliver at the weekend.”
If they do, Celtic will go five points clear of Rangers with just four games of the season played, a tangible reward over and above the psychological blow they would inflict upon Philippe Clement and his men.
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Surely, this first game between the sides this season then is more important than most when viewed in that context?
“I think every game is,” Rodgers countered.
“Whether it's the first one, the last one, every game in the Celtic Rangers game means everything.
“I think for me it's just important for us to look to continue with our momentum, our mentality.
“For us, we want to perform and that's thinking of that process and how we can perform to the ability that we have been, and that's been our only focus. Then we look to see what the result brings.
“As professional football players and coaches and the manager, we prepare for the game and especially these games in particular. You know that there's a different psyche in them but for us we're coming into it in a really good place.
“But we can never, as I said, just assume that you don't have to do the work. You have to do all the dirty side of the game, you have to be together, you've got to be unified and then bring your football and see how difficult you can make it for the opponent.”
All that being well and good, Rodgers still couldn’t deny that the butterflies always flutter just a little harder in the stomach ahead of matches against Rangers when he was asked if these fixtures still get his juices flowing after all these years.
“Every single one,” he said.
“I feel it always like my first game because I know what it means to everyone. I understand the feeling, I understand the journeys. The heart of a Celtic supporter's story is Celtic Rangers. That's the heart of it, so I understand what it means.
“But we'll go into it, we'll be ready for a tough game. It's the first of these games in the season of which there'll be many, and we're really excited about it.
“There's always a satisfaction whenever you win and however that comes, whether you're a favourite to win it or whether it's against the odds. I think winning any derby game is always special.
“My feeling is always of happiness and joy. Then it's about reflective analysis of the game to see areas where we could have improved and where we could have been better and then look to take that forward.
“You've got millions of people watching this game, wishing and loving to be a part of it. My feeling is I'm very lucky to be right in it, and that's my approach every single time we go and we're in it to win and play well.
“That's always a good feeling if you can do that at the end.”
