Philippe Clement's only real Rangers injury is a pang of regret and one way to halt Belgian waffler status

The fickle finger of fate poked Philippe Clement in the eye prior to meeting Celtic but resulted in no loss of vision.

A daily diet of denial when it came to losing important players to injury was made light of by the Belgian, while Celtic made heavy weather of taking any advantage of Rangers ’ supposedly reduced strength. The only injury suffered by the Rangers manager was a pang of regret. His team wiped the floor with Celtic on Thursday and yet remained a distant second in the league table because of their inability to win in places like Kilmarnock, Paisley and Motherwell.

A form of travel sickness which will have to be dealt with at Easter Road this afternoon in front of a full ground and a live television audience. A win hints at a renewal of Clement’s previously beleaguered squad. Any loss of points undoes, to one extent or another, the good of the win against the tea team from across the road on the other side of the city. The basic obligation, given the twelve noon start to the match in Edinburgh, is for Rangers to reduce Celtic’s lead in the championship to eight points and see if that spooks anyone when Brendan Rodgers ’ team kick off against St Mirren later in the day.

The scale of Clement’s win in the Old Firm derby was too impressive to be dismissed merely as the law of averages dictating that it had to happen sometime. But the match that comes next has to offer evidence of a corner having been turned.

Clement’s popularity in the opinion polls has gone up and down to the extent that nobody really knows whether some people of a sarcastic nature are glad he beat Celtic because it keeps him in a job. Or whether his approval rating has finally taken on a stable standing through public confidence in him being