Celtic can get the green party started...but stay on red alert as Aberdeen play for Pittodrie pride

There have been a few comments about the game being meaningless but there is no such thing, especially when you play for Celtic.

Aberdeen will be playing for a bit of pride and Celtic will be going out to put on the kind of display that shows exactly why they are champions. Put it this way, I don't think the game will be flat.

I don't think there is any doubt that Celtic will want to keep the momentum going between now and the end of the campaign.

With just three games to go before the curtain comes down, I suspect that they will want show the same kind of form that they've had in the league since the turn of the year.

There might be a little bit of added spice to it because of the comments Kris Commons made last week when he spoke about the perceived lack of a title challenge from Aberdeen, but sometimes remarks like that get blown out of all proportion.

If that is his opinion, though, then he is perfectly entitled to it.

Two of the league games against Aberdeen this season were very close - and I fully agree with Deila that the 2-1 victory with 10 men at Pittodrie in November was a definitive turning point in the campaign.

Aberdeen will want a result against Celtic. The head-to-heads between the teams have been hugely significant in the race for the title and they will want to take the chance to show that they can compete with Celtic.

But for Deila, the focus now is all on what is to come.

The title has been won but his attention now will be on the qualifiers for the Uefa Champions League because there is so little time to prepare for them once the season ends.

And while I suspect that he may want to continue fielding a strong side for the remaining three games in order to maintain the momentum, it will be interesting to see if he brings a fringe player like Stefan Scepovic or one of the youth players into the mix.

It would give him the chance to take another look at guys like Scepovic and see if there is a place for him at the club going forward or to see how one of the younger players at the club copes in a first-team environment.

The only issue with that is that I think players will not want to give up their jersey.

Everyone wants to play when you are winning games and, although the likes of Scott Brown, Emilio Izaguirre and Craig Gordon have played in excess of 50 games this season, they will want to keep going until the end.

The biggest question for Deila ahead of the qualifying games will revolve around just who he has at his disposal.

There are huge question marks over the central defensive pairing with Jason Denayer certainly going back to Manchester City and Virgil van Dijk's future unclear.

But I also think that he will look to bring another striker into the club over the summer.

Leigh Griffiths started the season firmly down the pecking order, but has more or less established himself as the main striker. He is playing with a high level of confidence just now because of the number of goals that he has scored but there will be another forward on the shopping list.

The problem is that it is more and more difficult to attract the kind of player that suits Celtic's needs. That doesn't mean that you stop looking for them, but given the financial disparity within the game it can be tough to bring in a player whom you think will be able to score goals at the highest level in European football.

And whoever you do bring in, even if it is a player who costs a significant sum of money, the bottom line is that there are no guarantees.

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