Lineker and Shearer blown away by Aberdeen as fellow pundit tips them to silence Celtic and Rangers and ‘do a Leicester’

Aberdeen have been tipped to challenge for the Scottish Premiership title by Gary Lineker and Micah Richards, thanks to their stellar performances so far this season.

The Dons have had a perfect start to the 2024/25 campaign, winning all five league games and getting to the semi-finals of the Premier Sports Cup. Jimmy Thelin's side currently sit joint-top of the table, alongside reigning champions Celtic, and are five points clear of third-placed Rangers.

One Scottish football fan sent in a question to The Rest is Football podcast, asking Lineker, Richards and fellow host Alan Shearer what they thought of Aberdeen's season so far - and the response was clear.

Lineker said: "We'll move onto a football question, a Scottish football question from Dan - 'What do you make of Aberdeen's start of the season under Jimmy Thelin? They've won 11 out of 11, joint top of the league and in a cup semi-final, can you remember any other manager's having a start like this?'

"Well, they're absolutely flying, Aberdeen, aren't they, since they've brought him [Thelin] in. They've got Pape Gueye, I think it is, who’s their top scorer. Can they maintain it? We'll have to wait and see. They like playing a high press, I've caught a couple of their games."

Shearer added: "Interesting though, isn't it? At least there's some other team that's challenging other than the big two, so that's good to see."

Richards compared the Dons' early run to that of Leicester City's Premier League triumph in 2015/16 and Bayer Leverkusen's unbeaten season last term – noting that once you get started, it's harder to lose a game due to sheer confidence.

He said: "I'll be totally honest, I've only seen highlights of the games, I did a bit of research and, like you said