Celtic must guard against title stumble to give chasing pack catch-up hope

The challenge to Celtic this season will come in two forms. Either Celtic stumble or someone makes an extended run to catch them.

As things have panned out this season, Ronny Deila's team have tripped up, but no other team in the league has managed to capitalise on it.

The reason the gap is as small as it is has more to do with Celtic's failings than because of the good work from the likes of Dundee United, Aberdeen and Hamilton.

Let's be honest, the Parkhead club have far superior resources and their players are simply better than those of their rivals, so they should be winning the league comfortably.

However, it only takes a couple of results like Sunday to make things a bit nervy.

United and Aberdeen are the two teams closest to them, with the latter probably being best equipped to put pressure on Celtic.

But over the piece they would need to rely on the Glasgow side doing them a favour for a title challenge to start up.

It is something which will all become clear in the start of the new year.

If you are going for success on all fronts you can't afford mistakes, and that is something to be wary of.

Within a short space of time Celtic will play Rangers in the League Cup semi-final, Dundee in the Scottish Cup quarter-final and Inter Milan in the Europa League.

The quality of the Italians will of course be formidable, but it's about making sure their league form is right going into that spell.

They can't afford to let their standards dip going into that busy spell, that's where problems will start to arise.

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