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The Scottish Premier League gets underway this weekend, with Rangers and Celtic once again expected to dominate proceedings.
Starting three weeks before the English Premier League, the SPL is the first league in Europe to get going, so there will be plenty of attention on proceedings over the weekend.
The opening encounter of the season sees Champions Rangers host Hearts on Saturday lunchtime.
The game is Ally McCoist’s first game in charge after making the step up from assistant manager following the departure of Walter Smith.
Rangers are of course favourites to win the match, but in Hearts they face a team that finished 3rd last season, so it is the toughest test they could have had first up other than Celtic.
There are then only two other games on the opening day of the SPL season, with Aberdeen hosting St Johnstone and Motherwell starting with a home game against Inverness.
Neil Lennon’s Celtic begin their title challenge with a tough trip to Hibernian on Sunday. They would have preferred to have started with a home game, but instead they must aim to get off to a winning start on the road.
Dundee United v Kilmarnock completes the weekend’s action, with Dunfermline v St Mirren to follow on Monday evening.
As ever, all eyes will be on the progress of Rangers and Celtic though. They are the two teams likely to challenge for the title and everyone is looking forward to the battle between McCoist and Lennon as the season progresses.
Much will be decided by who gets more points in the Old Firm games of course, with the first coming on Sunday 18th September 2011.
Looking at some specific SPL betting markets tells you that no other teams are likely to challenge for first place other than the first two.
Beyond the Old Firm, Hearts are the next in line with regards to title betting, although their odds of 66/1 tell their own story.
Rangers and Celtic dominate the top goalscorer betting too with Celtic’s Gary Hooper and Rangers’ Nikica Jelavic leading the way.
Hopefully it will be an entertaining opening weekend though. After the summer break you never know who might hit the ground running and there could be a shock result or two.
As the season progresses Celtic and Rangers will of course be the top two once again, but if Hearts or someone similar can get off to a flier, it will make for interesting viewing in the first few weeks of the SPL.
