“It is always about bragging rights for the supporters and I think they will be proud of their team today”, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said.
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This weekend’s match will be the first league clash between the two clubs in four years following Rangers’ return to the top flight of Scottish football after working their way back up the divisions after financial problems saw them demoted to the bottom tier.
“It’s a huge game, a big game, but one that we want to win, like every game at Celtic Park”.
The league leaders are now four points clear of Rangers with an additional league fixture in hand.
After Joe Garner pulled one back for Rangers, Dembele supplied an assist for Scott Sinclair and snatched his third of the game with seven minutes remaining, before Stuart Armstrong rounded off the scoring in second-half stoppage time.
“We were going to get beaten by three or four, I read four minimum somewhere from one very wise pundit and I have read all the comments from ex-players and ex-managers but it is about us and it’s about Rangers”.
Moussa Dembele’s hat trick guided Celtic to a 5-1 win over Rangers.
The Light Blues enjoyed positive spells at the start of the first half and second but struggled to cope with Celtic’s frontline on this occasion.
Warburton could obviously see where some of Rangers’ problems were making an uncharacteristic half-time change, replacing the ineffective Kranjcar with Andy Halliday, and the change looked to have re-invigorated the light blues. Talk is cheap, so you can’t sit here and say “We’re going to learn from it”. There were 15 points up for grabs and we’ve got eight.
“We understand the emotions and the significance of the game to so many people in Glasgow”, he said.
“But good players make good decisions and too many times today we made poor decisions in possession and gave the ball away from commanding areas”.
He trained at the start of the week at Lennoxtown but had to have a scan which will be assessed by boss Brendan Rodgers who, with a long season ahead, is wary of taking any chances.
“We’ve got to be better than that”.
Warburton admitted that debut defender Philippe Senderos was deservedly red carded on 75 minutes for a foolish handball while on a booking.
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“When you’re Celtic and you play at home, winning is expected”, Rodgers said.
