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Celtic are winless in their past four league games against Rangers (D2 L2); they had only failed to win four of their previous 12 Old Firm derbies in the Scottish Premiership beforehand (W8 D3 L1).
Both of the past two league Old Firm derbies have been drawn; Celtic and Rangers haven't played out three successive league draws since October 2002.
Celtic are winless in the past three occasions that their first league game of a calendar year has come against Rangers (D1 L2), although each were at Ibrox. When playing their league opener of a year at home to Rangers, Celtic are unbeaten in four (W2 D2) since a 4-2 defeat in 1994.
Rangers have only lost their opening league match in one of the past 14 calendar years (W11 D2), going down 2-1 away to Kilmarnock in 2019.
The last league meeting between Celtic and Rangers in August featured just nine shots and 0.34 expected goals. Since Opta have this data in the competition (from 2019-20), it's the lowest xG on record in a Scottish Premiership match, and also the second-lowest shot tally in this time, ahead of only St Johnstone v Livingston in May 2021 (seven).
Celtic have lost five of their 19 league games so far this season. It's already their most defeats in a single campaign since 2020-21 (also five), while they last suffered more defeats in 2012-13 (seven).
Rangers have won four of their past five league games (L1), just one fewer than they had in their first 14 this term (W5 D8 L1). Both of their defeats so far have been against league leaders Heart of Midlothian.
This will be the first league Old Firm derby for both Celtic's Wilfried Nancy and Rangers' Danny Röhl.
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