We are back baby! 🎉 Forget all the pre-season friendlies, the League Cup and Covid call offs as Scottish league football is back this weekend and the fixture computer has thrown together a brilliant first set of fixtures. Champions Rangers will have 23,000 fans at Ibrox to witness the beginning of their title defence while Celtic travel to face the winners of last season’s Championship, Hearts at Tynecastle. Newly promoted Dundee welcome top six chasing St. Mirren to Dens as cup double winners St. Johnstone make the trip up to face Malky Mackay’s Ross County. Sunday’s double header sees a ‘New Firm’ derby between Aberdeen and Dundee United at Pittodrie before Motherwell v Hibs gets the Sky treatment later in the afternoon.

It’s an exciting set of games in what looks set to be an intriguing Premiership season. Will Rangers retain their title? How will Celtic fair under Ange Postecoglou’s leadership? Which sides are likely to be battling it out at the bottom of the table? You can read my full Scottish Premiership 2021-22 here.

As well as my season preview, here is exactly how I see the opening week of the new season and each of the six ties unfolding.

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Rangers v Livingston

Rangers and Livingston will kick the new season off and expectations of retaining their Premiership trophy will be high at Ibrox this season. They couldn’t be coming into this one off the back of a better result, with Steven Gerrard’s men’s last pre-season match being a 2-1 win over a strong Real Madrid side last weekend. It’s not often you go from facing Carlo Ancelotti and Marcelo to David Martindale and Scott Pittman but it’s the sort games Gerrard will be hopeful of playing this season.

Champions League group stage qualification will be the early season aim but before Rangers can face Malmo in the third qualifying round they will face the tricky test of Livi at home. Since their promotion to the top flight, Livingston have faced Rangers 11 times across all competitions and it doesn’t make for great reading. Rangers have won nine of those games losing just once and conceding only two goals.

I fear it will be a similar fate for Livingston this weekend with the Gers keen to put on a show to welcome the fans back to Ibrox. Rangers have strengthened their squad over the summer with the arrivals of Fashion Sakala and John Lundstram whereas Livi look a worse side on paper than they did this time last year. They also fell away spectacularly last campaign, winning just once in their final 12 games of the season and Livi won’t be expectant of arresting that slide at Ibrox this weekend, especially after an underwhelming League Cup group stage performance.

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Dundee v St. Mirren

Top flight football is back at Dens and in facing St. Mirren, Dundee will be hopeful of kicking off their league season with a win. Both of these sides breezed through their League Cup groups, and managed to join the five European sides and Dundee United in getting on the seeded half of the draw, and both James McPake and Jim Goodwin will be hopeful of carrying that form into the new season.

These sides will have different expectations for the coming season with St. Mirren very much set to challenge the likes of Hearts and St. Johnstone for a spot in the top six. Dundee on the other hand will be content with survival after coming up through the Play-Offs last campaign. The Dee have added well over the summer and the early signs have been good, though we haven’t seen them face a proper test yet (their League Cup tie with Ross County was awarded in their favour after covid issues in the County squad). St. Mirren certainly will be a test and ambitions to finally break into the top half of the table is reflected in some decent business done by the men from Paisley.

Dundee do have one of the most talented midfields outside of the five sides that qualified for Europe last season but I’m not totally convinced on what’s surrounds that talent and St. Mirren are an established and stubborn Premiership side. This will be a good indication of where McPake’s men are but I think they might just come out narrow losers to a side who look set to have another strong season under a hugely talented manager.

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Ross County v St. Johnstone

We’ve seen nowhere near enough of Malky Mackay’s County this season to know exactly where they stand ahead of the new campaign after Covid wreaked havoc on their League Cup campaign. They’ve played just two competitive games under their new manager and welcoming St. Johnstone to Dingwall is one of the more unforgiving tasks a new manager could receive on the opening day of the season.

St. Johnstone’s European journey kicks off next week after their cup double exploits as they travel to Turkey to face giants Galatasaray but before then they must navigate County. St. Johnstone started last season really slowly but that should be less of an issue with it being Callum Davidson’s second season in charge and the fact that little business, either outgoing or incoming, has been done so far. It will likely be the same side that swept up the domestic cups that takes to The Global Energy Stadium this weekend. St. Johnstone were actually better away from home in the Premiership last season than they were in Perth and with County laying claim to the second worst home record in the division it might be a tough start to life in the County dugout for Mackay.

County were very lucky to stay up last season and their home form was a contributing factor to their near miss with the relegation places so it must improve if they’re to have a more comfortable season of it this time around. I’d be surprised if they did manage to get all three points this weekend but with St. Johnstone’s players having half an eye on the midweek trip to face Galatasaray then there’s a chance County could catch them cold.

Hearts v Celtic

The late kick-off on Saturday night looks an absolute topper with Championship winners Hearts hosting a new look Celtic side fresh of a disappointing performance in Denmark that saw them drop out of the Champions League qualifiers. Celtic were dreadful against Midtjylland during the week and the squad at new manager Ange Postecoglou’s disposal looks like one of the poorest Celtic squads in years.

Celtic were reliant on three academy graduates at the back and Scott Bain in goals, which goes some way to show where a lot of their problems lie. That’s not to say that the top end of the park was much better, Odsonne Edouard looked uninterested, as he often did last season, and but for a Callum McGregor screamer Celtic would’ve exited the Champions League qualifiers rather limply. Hearts on the other hand have a had a good start to the season, though the failure to put more than one past Inverness to gain seeded status in the League Cup groups is a source of frustration for Hearts fans.

It’s probably a sign of how their early season may go. They’ve looked incredibly solid at the back but the Jambos don’t look to be free-flowing at the other end, which may be less of an issue against Celtic and more of a concern when they play sides that they’ll be expected to beat. This looks a tough one to call but I wouldn’t be surprised if a stubborn Hearts side frustrate Celtic and welcome their fans back by getting a result.

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Aberdeen v Dundee United

Sunday’s games kick-off with a potentially tantalising tie between a new look Aberdeen side and a Dundee United team with a new man in the managerial hotseat. Aberdeen’s revamped squad looked the business as they brushed aside Allsvenskan Hacken 5-1 in their Conference League qualifier and barring a complete collapse in the second leg they’ll face Austria Vienna or Breidablik in the third qualifying round.

Hopes of starting their domestic campaign as well as they did in Europe will be high with all not too rosy amongst their opponents. Dundee United topped their League Cup group winning all four games to an aggregate score line of 9-1 but Tam Courts’ arrival doesn’t seem to have brought much optimism to the fans. League Cup performances were very similar to last season’s turgid football and it’s been a quiet summer on the transfer front which has given United fans little hope for a better season.

They will however remain a difficult team to beat and it’s true that Aberdeen did really struggle against United last season, with the two sides meeting four times over League and Scottish Cup duties, with United winning twice and the other two ties ending 0-0 after successful shut-up-shop operations from the men from Tannadice. Stephen Glass has got his Aberdeen side playing some very nice football, far better than we saw at the end of Derek McInnes’s Pittodrie reign, and it does look like it could be a successful season for the Dons. Adversely, though it is very early days in Courts’ stewardship, it looks like United are still some way from being able to compete with an impressive Aberdeen side and may struggle to get into the game on Sunday.

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Motherwell v Hibernian

The final game of the weekend takes us to Fir Park where Hibs should be safely through to the next stage of Conference League qualifying by the time they travel to face Motherwell on Sunday afternoon. Amazingly, there well be around 50% of the stadium filled with 2,000 of the 6,500 permitted to be in attendance being made up of away fans! What a brilliant sign that is and hopefully we can start to see that replicated across the country.

As for the game itself, having 2,000 travelling fans could give an already strong Hibs side an enormous boost. They made light work of Santa Coloma in the opening leg of their Conference League campaign, eventually winning 3-0 despite the softest of all red cards for Joe Newell in a feisty affair. Motherwell’s start to the new season has been less fruitful, with boos ringing out during half-time in a couple of their League Cup ties. They qualified from what was one of the tougher groups in the end, but in a similar way to the Dundee United fans, Motherwell supporters weren’t best impressed by Graham Alexander’s side and their performances.

I’m buzzing to see the return to near normality in the stadium with nearly half of Fir Park expected to be filled and am hopeful that it could spur those on the pitch to put on a show. Hibs could be a brilliant watch this season with Scott Allan returning to fitness to provide some reliable service to what is a very dangerous pool of forwards ahead of him and we could see Hibs’ attacking prowess give them the advantage in this one.

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

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