Analysis Corner: Are Aberdeen set for a late season collapse? & how Thistle could be playing European Football
By Dougie Wright (@dougie_analysis)
Weekend Thoughts
While Celtic may have wrapped up the title last weekend, there are still plenty of loose ends that need tied up before the end of the season.
Every position from 2nd to 12th is still up for grabs, with relegation still very viable for all the bottom six. Meanwhile, Rangers may well have opened up the race for 2nd with a 3-0 win over Aberdeen, and Partick Thistle are playing so well that European football is not totally out of the question.
The weekend’s biggest game took place at Pittodrie, where 2nd placed Aberdeen took on 3rd placed Rangers. With the Ibrox side having suffered a dismal run away from home (one win from their last six), not many had tipped them against the side twelve points above them in the table.
However, in 54 seconds of madness, the match turned from a 0-0 draw to a surprise 3-0 away win. A nine-point gap is significant, however there is one major thing going in Rangers’ favour here. Here’s Aberdeen’s post-split record in each of their previous three fixtures under Derek McInnes:
Twelve points from a possible forty-five in post-split fixtures.
In these days of sports science, a lot is made of periodization- the ability to manage athletic performance over the course of a season. One swallow doesn’t make a summer, but three end of season collapses do make you wonder whether McInnes’ side start running out of steam around this time of the year.
Moving to Firhill, Partick Thistle achieved their first top six finish since 1981 with a 1-0 win over Motherwell. Archibald’s team are on an eight-game unbeaten run (only Celtic have been unbeaten for longer), and looking at the last ten games, only Celtic and Aberdeen have taken more points.
Doolan’s 100 goals, a top 6 finish and an unbeaten run to boot…life is good for Jags fans right now.
However, 8 points from a possible 42 against their top six opponents so far this season isn’t a fantastic record. They’ll certainly need to step up their game even more to finish the season on a high. However, the eight points gap between themselves and St Johnstone in fourth is certainly not an impossible one to bridge. Manage that, and there may just be European football at Firhill for the first time in over twenty years.
Finally, more dominance for Celtic at Parkhead. In 2880 minutes of league football, they’ve only been behind for 111 minutes. It’s now been two months and nine matches since they were last trailing domestically (for a whole eighteen minutes against St Johnstone). This is an under-appreciated aspect of a winning team: it demonstrates a high level of control over the game and its outcome. The aspect of “luck” has been minimal over the course of the season.
It’s now thirty-nine domestic games undefeated for Celtic. Win the next eight and they become the first Scottish team in modern history to win an undefeated treble. How’s that for an incentive?
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