Philippe Clement holds ultimate Rangers title race trump card and and is now ready to use it

Things couldn't have gone much better for Philippe Clement at Rangers so far and now the Belgian boss will be looking to call on his previous experience to help deliver a record 56th league title at Ibrox.

An inspired run of nine consecutive Premiership wins has seen the Light Blues overturn a seven point gap between themselves and rivals Celtic to now establish a two point lead at the top of the tree, with just five games remaining until the top-flight split. The Old Firm will meet again in the penultimate round of fixtures before the split, with Rangers welcoming Brendan Rodgers' Hoops to Govan on Sunday, April 7.

For some outside of Scotland, the league splitting in half for the crucial run in at the end of the season might be something previously unheard of but that certainly isn't the case for former Genk title winner Clement. In the victorious 2018/19 campaign, the 49-year-old's team coasted into the post-split phase, collecting 63 points from their 30 matches, losing just three times.

In Belgium, the post-split league table then sees each team's total points tally halved for their final 10 matches, meaning that Genk's lead at the top over nearest rivals Club Brugge was cut from seven points to four.

But that mattered little, as by winning six, drawing two and losing two of the post-split games, Genk claimed their first league title in eight years, also securing qualification for the Champions League for the first time since 2011. Clement moved onto domestic rivals Club Brugge in the following season and enjoyed even more success, racking up a 15 point lead at the top of the Belgian Pro League after 29 matches.

The global COVID-19 global pandemic threatened to deny the Antwerp-born coach back-to-back league titles