Graeme Souness fires Celtic a loaded Rangers warning as title race spawns weighty question from Ibrox icon

Graeme Souness says how Celtic deal with title race pressure could define where the trophy goes come May.

The title race is tight and it's currently the Ibrox side out in front. Dropped points at the weekend in a 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock, which Rangers punished with a 3-0 win over St Johnstone on Sunday.

It means Philippe Clement's men are out in front by two points. Rangers take on Hearts in a tricky fixture at Ibrox on Saturday while Motherwell host Celtic on Sunday.

According to former Ibrox manager Souness, the pressure is all on Celtic now. He told talkSPORT: “Rangers and Celtic never play easy games. Every game is a cup final for them.

“When you’re the top team [in the Scottish Premiership], you’re not getting any criticism and sailing off into the sunset. But if you’re the team in second, the focus is on you about how everything is wrong at the football club.

“There may be times that the top team is not playing as well but it still doesn’t matter because if you’re second in Scotland, you get all the criticism. It’s all about how that is dealt with by the players – can they deal with that pressure? Right now, the Celtic players are getting a lot of abuse. For the last few years, that’s been Rangers.”

Souness was part of the Rangers delegation that interviewed Clement before the board subsequently hired him. Difficult questions were fired but the Belgian has handled it well.

The pundit added: "He’s done well in Belgium, then going to Southern France with Monaco. But no job in football prepares you for the West of Scotland.

"My major concern, I mean, he interviewed brilliantly. I was part of the interviewing process and I was firing some difficult questions at him, but he’s got presence, and his English is very, very good.

“He’s got a great CV, but the one doubt I had was that managing in the West of Scotland and managing one of the Old Firm teams brings its own challenges, but he’s handling it.”