Celtic vs Dundee United

Celtic will plan to continue increasing their gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership table during the match with Dundee United scheduled for Wednesday at Celtic Park.

While the hosts are holding the first position with 53 points in first twenty games of this decisive stage, the guests are in third place with 34 points gained in 21 games.

Celtic are also on the best start to the 2024-25 Scottish Premiership season, leading the table with a 13 point margin, in line for the knockout stages of the Champions League and having won the Scottish League Cup after the win on penalties over Rangers.

It briefly lost all the first nine matches of the campaign including a sordid 7-1 defeat in the Champions League to Borussia Dortmund though Brendan Rodgers’s team brilliantly replied with an 18-match run without a defeat with five draws and 13 wins.

That run involved such a picturesque Scottish League Cup final that pitted Celtic and Rangers in a goal fest that ended 3-3 on regular time before the Bhoys winning 5-4 on penalty shootout to clinch the first title of the campaign.

However, Celtic’s domestic record remained unblemished as they proceeded to the next round while 3 games later the unbeaten run ended at the hands of Rangers when the Gers frustrated the Bhoys by thrashing them 3-0.

In the two matches this season Celtic has been able to respond to a defeat with victory as the team proved by silencing St Mirren with a 3-0 defeat the previous week and setting their sight on Dundee Utd Wednesday.

The visitors could well be even more formidable than the Saints as, based on the results, Dundee Utd has been outplaying its rivals in the 2024-25 initially of the campaign.

After being unexpectedly demoted from the top division in 2022–2023—the Tangerines immediately bounced back, winning the Scottish Championship in 2023–2024 and being promoted back into the Premiership.

After nine victories, seven draws, and five losses, Jim Goodwin's team has made an incredible comeback to the top flight and is presently ranked third in the standings with 34 points from 21 games.

They did suffer a disheartening defeat in their most recent encounter, falling to relegation-threatened Hearts 1-0 to stop their winning streak of three games. They will be keen to recover from this setback.

But history is undoubtedly against the visitors, as Dundee United has lost all 20 of their previous matches with Celtic in all competitions.

Both James Forrest and Odin Thiago Holm are expected to return later this month, but Celtic will continue to be without them for this game due to injury concerns.

Rodgers may decide to use a similar starting lineup for this match after they recovered well from their loss to Rangers and defeated St Mirren 3-0 the previous time out.

Due to persistent injury worries, Craig Sibbald (groin) and Louis Moult (shoulder) are not expected to play until later this month for the visitors.

Although top scorer Sam Dalby is anticipated to maintain his position in the attack, Goodwin may choose to make a number of changes to the team that suffered a disappointing 1-0 loss to Hearts in their most recent game.