Good week, bad week

One of the oldest cliches in football is that form goes out of the window in derby matches. The theory is that the passion stoked up by local rivalry can help the weaker team overcome its superior neighbours, and its something for the underdog and its supporters to hang on to.

Old Firm encounters, though, tend to go with form, and the current statistics bear this out. Rangers have not won at Parkhead in 16 fixtures, and if any of the blue faithful thought the first Old Firm clash of the season was the day to end this depressing run, they were sorely mistaken. Not only did Rangers lose 2-0, they didn't really make a game of it, and the result is as bad for them as it is good for their old rivals. Some have commented that the latest contest between the 2 Glasgow giants was less aggressive than in recent years, but the truth is that Celtic didn't really need to fight for the win.

Let's start with the happier side of Glasgow. Gordon Strachan could not have wished for a better result. Thomas Gravesen scored his first goal for his new club, which will help him settle in the middle of the Celtic team, and Kenny Miller finally broke his duck after 17 games for Celtic. He was unrestrained in his celebration, too, which won't have made him any more popular with his old employers (he was with Rangers before moving to Wolves). At the back, the defence emerged unscathed and the Caldwell/McManus partnership looks finally to be gelling. With an 8 point gap to Rangers, Celtic can afford to turn their attention back to European matters, with a Champions League fixture this week against FC Copenhagen.

Paul le Guen was hailed as the master technician when he arrived at Ibrox, the man to restore Ranger's dominance in Scottish football. But it is not working out like that, and they now host Molde in the UEFA Cup on Thursday knowing that defeat will cause mention of crisis in the stands. They weren't in the contest on Saturday, and on current form could easily drop many more points before they next meet Celtic in the league. If the gap between them gets much wider, Rangers will be throwing in the towel half way through the season.

Barry Ferguson was somewhat more energetic in the press than on the pitch in the aftermath of the game, conducting a round of interviews to complement the serialisation of his book in The Sun, who hilariously billed it as his autobiography, by Iain King. The theme of the extract was similar to his interviews - he loves Rangers so much, and he knows how much the fans are hurting because he used to stand on the terraces alongside them. He then explained that he was getting back to full match fitness and the forthcoming Scotland matches would be no problem for him.

Frankly, he shouldn't get ahead of himself. While the likelihood is he'll walk straight back into the Scotland team, armband on, that has more to do with Walter Smith's stubborness than his form, because on Saturday Ferguson was once again poor. His opinion was that his team played well but didn't do anything in the final third, neatly passing the blame to the strikers (what a noble captain he is). This was simply untrue. Rangers desperately needed to take the game to Celtic and refuse them time on the ball... instead they were repeatedly cut open in midfield, allowing their opponents to get the ball out to their wingers time and time again. When Jeremy Clement (one of the few le Guen signings to have made a positive impact so far) is fit again, the Rangers manager is going to have an interesting decision to make.

Celtic 2-0 Rangers
Hibs 0-1 Falkirk
Dundee Utd 1-1 Motherwell
Dunfermline 2-1 St Mirren
Kilmarnock 1-1 Inverness CT
Aberdeen 1-3 Hearts