Chris Sutton warns Celtic ARE in title race with Rangers but tells Ibrox side what they can't afford to do

Chris Sutton reckons the title race is ON after Rangers battled to a gutsy win over Hearts.

The Celtic hero was on Sky Sports duty as Philippe Clement kept his undefeated run going at Tynecastle. While the Hoops cruised to a resounding 4-1 victory over Hibs, the pressure was on Rangers, who kicked off 15 minutes later for the TV cameras, to match their result and prevent the gap from getting wider. And Abdallah Sima's first-half strike proved enough to get them it despite a nervy finale.

Both Glasgow giants winning means the gap between the top two still sits at eight points with Gers holding a game in hand against St Johnstone. Celtic are heavy favourites to make that advantage count come May, but both teams have shown some recent vulnerability with dropped points in the league. And Sutton reckons if his old rivals can stop losing "silly points" - like they did against Aberdeen after Celtic stumbled against Motherwell - they could make a title race of it yet.

He said on Sky: "Rangers need to make sure they don’t drop silly points. They did drop silly points at Aberdeen. I think there’s a title race on this season. They’ve got the European fixture coming up but (this is) a big three points for Philippe Clement.”

The Light Blues have a huge three games in a 10-day spell with Dundee at Ibrox in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday where they could cut the gap to five points with a win over Celtic who play at Kilmarnock on Sunday and that is followed by a Europa League clash against Real Betis in Seville and then the Viaplay Cup final against Aberdeen at Hampden where they can lift the first piece of silverware of the season.