And just like that the opening week of the new Scottish Premiership season has been and gone. There were 17 goals, plenty of incidents and all the usual nonsense that goes hand in hand with Scottish football but after another bumper midweek of European qualifiers the clubs are back for week two of the new season.

All five sides competing in Europe are still well in their ties, with Celtic getting a somewhat unconvincing 4-2 win over Jablonec away from home while Hibs and St. Johnstone picked up impressive draws too. Aberdeen won in Iceland while Rangers kept their Champions League hopes alive with a last minute Steve Davis goal to halve the deficit and only lose 2-1 to Malmo in Sweden.

The knocking out of some European heavyweights will have to be put on hold until this weekend’s Premiership action is done and dusted. Here’s how I think week two of the greatest league on earth will play out this weekend.

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Dundee United v Rangers

It’s been a mixed week for Steven Gerrard as although their Scottish Premiership title defence couldn’t have gotten off to a smoother start, a 2-1 defeat to Malmo on Tuesday in the Champions League qualifiers will have dented morale a tad, though Steven Davis’ last minute goal very much keeps the tie alive. To say it’s been a worse week for Tam Courts and Dundee United may be something of an understatement.

Their performance last Sunday at Pittodrie was pitiful. Courts’ comments after the game were embarrassing and to make things even worse, star striker Lawrence Shankland looks to be off for a reported fee that would’ve looked ridiculous this time last season. United were dreadful against Aberdeen on Sunday, creating so little yet hardly looking solid at the back either. They ended the game with no recognised striker on the park, despite chasing the game and two unanswered Aberdeen goals. It didn’t show Courts in a good light and gave his critics reason to bring up his inexperience in the senior game, rightly or wrongly. What is without dispute is Courts’ comments after the tie, stating that his side edged the first half and followed their game plan. It’s the sort of comments you hear from a beleaguered manager clinging on to a job, not a man in only his fifth game in charge.

It could be a long season for United with a lack of creativity and goals a massive issue. That won’t be their biggest issue today but they’ll be hopeful of catching Rangers on an off day with an eye on their European campaign. Even still, I’d be amazed if they could get anything from the game, even on home turf and in front of their own fans but Rangers’ Champions League ambitions might help United keep the score down with Gerrard potentially resting some of his more established names at Tannadice this weekend.

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St. Mirren v Hearts

The only game of the weekend that doesn’t feature a side competing in Europe during the week looks a decent one with a buoyant Hearts off to Paisley looking to build on their opening day 2-1 victory over Celtic.

Truth be told, I could’ve called 10 of you and put together a side capable of giving Celtic a decent game last weekend but to Hearts’ credit you can only beat what is in front of you and they certainly did that. Celtic dominated the ball as expected but the way Robbie Neilson has set up his side this season that suited the Jambos and they capitalised on some dire Celtic defending. St. Mirren’s backline is a lot more coherent than whoever came out of The Celtic Defensive Tombola last weekend so Hearts will have to work harder to carve out  opportunities against Jim Goodwin’s men than they did when facing Nir Bitton and Scott Bain.

St. Mirren were a wee bit lucky to take a point off Dundee last weekend, despite Dundee going down to 10 men. I’m going to give young Jay Henderson the benefit of the doubt and say that he didn’t dive for the penalty for St. Mirren’s second but my word it was soft. The Saints will be a tough nut to crack this season but even though they were a tad lucky to get the result last weekend, playing 20 minutes against 10-men will be seen as points dropped. They’ll be doing well to pick up points against the other promoted team this weekend but I’m intrigued to see how Hearts get on in a tie where they’re forced to take the game to their opponent a bit more. I fear this may be the sort of game that only a mother could love so good luck to anyone going this weekend.

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Celtic v Dundee

It’s not been the best of starts to life in the Celtic dugout for Ange Postecoglou but there have been brief flickerings of what the Aussie wants to do at Parkhead this season. He’ll need to see more form his team pretty quickly lest he come under serious pressure but in welcoming Dundee to Celtic Park Postecoglou has a good chance to give the fans a taste of what they can expect this season.

The truth is that they’ve had an incredibly difficult start to the season with the vital European ties and a trip to Tynecastle being the opposite of what a manager would ask for when he’s acclimatising to a new league and a new squad. The slow progress in the transfer market isn’t on his shoulders either and has been an issue for years at Parkhead but things are starting to look better and this is a good chance to keep the feel-good atmosphere up. Joe Hart and James McCarthy are in and could feature this weekend and they could help with the solidity of this side, if not answer many of the structural issues of the team. They should be upgrades on those they’ll replace, but that’s not hard in Hart’s case. Give you or I a pair of goalie gloves and we’ll be able to look as reassuring as Scott Bain or Vasilis Barkas between the Celtic nets.

As for Dundee, I was mightily impressed with their resolute draw with St. Mirren last weekend and do think they look well set for the coming campaign. They were the victims of a shoddy penalty decision and Max Anderson’s red card took the wind out of their sails somewhat but there was more than enough on show at Dens last Saturday to give James McPake cause for optimism. There’s certainly an argument that it’s a great time to play Celtic but I fear it might be too much of a jump for the Dee to expect a result at Parkhead, even if they can make something of a game of it this weekend and cause a shambolic defence some problems.

Hibs v Ross County

Jack Ross’ men have had a strong start to the season and although the impending departure of Josh Doig isn’t ideal, Hibs look well set for another European push this season and could even still make the Conference League proper after a decent draw with Rijeka.

The 3-2 win over Motherwell last Sunday was a real treat for anyone who had the pleasure of watching. Neither goal Hibs conceded at Fir Park was well defended well at all with both coming from crosses into the box but there was more than enough shown by Ross’ men at the weekend to give the fans faith in another top four finish. The front four looked incredibly dangerous with Kevin Nisbet and Martin Boyle picking up from last season and terrorising yet another Premiership defence. Ross has built a well-balanced side and that has been evident over the course of the season thus far.

The same can’t be said of today’s visitors. Ross County can be entitled to something of a slow start under their new manager after Covid decimated their League Cup campaign. They didn’t impress overly in their opening Premiership tie and had Ali McCann remembered he was taking a penalty in the sport of football and not thought he was at Murrayfield then they would’ve lost, but McCann contrived to blast a late penalty over the bar in a fairly drab 0-0 draw in Dingwall. It’s not the worst point in the world but I fear it might come back to bite them come the end of the season and I can’t see them getting a first league win under Malky Mackay this weekend as they head to the capital.

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Livingston v Aberdeen

For all the talk after their game on Sunday was about just how poor Dundee United were and how odd Tam Courts’ comments were after their 2-0 win, Aberdeen were totally comfortable on Sunday against a side that looks to have a similar level of quality to this Livingston side.

Now we have no idea what the European campaigns of Aberdeen, St. Johnstone, Hibs, Rangers and Celtic will do for those sides’ domestic performances but Aberdeen did navigate it well last weekend and should do similar this Sunday. The balance in the midfield was evident from the start against Dundee United with Jay Emmanuel-Thomas dropping in deep to give Lewis Ferguson and Scott Brown help when they needed it, not that they required an extra body against a rudderless Dundee United.

It should be a bit tougher this weekend, with a trip to Livingston a far tougher test on paper than last weekend. Livi’s season opener was the one nobody wanted. A trip to Ibrox was always going to be the toughest ask on the opening day and Rangers seldom had to get out of second tier last Saturday as they strolled to a 3-0 victory, 77% possession and 18 shots on goal. You can’t judge Livi too harshly off the back of that performance, but I still don’t hold out too much hope that it’ll be a great season for David Martindale’s side. They do look bereft of a goalscorer and the overall talent level of the squad has taken a bit of a hit over the summer and Aberdeen could take advantage of that this weekend.

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St. Johnstone v Motherwell

Amazingly, St. Johnstone are probably kicking themselves for only coming away from Turkey and Galatasaray with a draw. Now, there’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d ever write. They had a goal and man advantage heading into the last half an hour but a 1-1 draw with Galatasaray won’t be sniffed at and it does give St. Johnstone a great chance of getting to the next round of the Europa League qualifiers.  

It’s back to domestic duty for the cup double winners this weekend though and Callum Davidson will be hopeful of registering a first win of the new season after passing up a golden opportunity to start the campaign with all three points in Dingwall last weekend. Ali McCann skied his penalty and the game ended 0-0 and it might not even be the worst point given the circumstances, but it certainly was an opportunity to get points ahead of starting their European dream. This too though is another good chance for a win and having watched some of Motherwell’s defending last weekend I wouldn’t be surprised to see them concede a lot of goals this campaign.

It was a brilliant game against Hibs for the neutral but some of the defending from both sides left a lot to be desired. One of the big positives for the Well was Kevin van Veen. The big striker was really good and a handful for the Hibs backline all afternoon in the 3-2 loss. He certainly looks a character and the sort of striker that’s as likely to score as he is to find himself in a bit of bother. I suspect it might be the latter this weekend with St. Johnstone laying claim to one of the sturdiest defences in the country, though they could make it an interesting tie in Perth.

18+ please gamble responsibly. All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.

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