22 Sept 2021
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Both of these sides were involved in the League Cup on Thursday night, though whereas Celtic enjoyed serene progress to the semi-finals courtesy of a dominant 3-0 win over Raith Rovers, Dundee Utd fell 3-1 at home to Hibernian as they were already three behind at the break.
That defeat was compounded by injuries to captain and centre-back Charlie Mulgrew, as well as striker Marc McNulty, both of whom are unlikely to feature here.
Celtic aren’t without any injuries themselves and it would appear the wait for striker Giorgos Giakoumakis’ debut will continue.
With Kyogo Furuhashi injured and both Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths leaving on deadline day, Albian Ajeti is the only recognized striker available to Ange Postecoglou.
Fortunately, the Swiss forward has chipped in with a few goals of late, while the Hoops are by no means without considerable attacking threat with Liel Abada and Jota patrolling the wings.
Celtic have struggled for consistency this season and have suffered four defeats across their past six fixtures, though two of those came in Europe to AZ Alkmaar and Real Betis, while another was inflicted by Rangers.
All four defeats were by narrow one-goal margins and each loss came on the road, whereas they’ve been far more impressive on home turf this season.
Celtic -2 Handicap
Across all competitions, Celtic have won all seven home games and in convincing fashion. They scored at least three times in all but one of these fixtures, racking up 26 goals in total, winning by a minimum two-goal margin on six occasions and by three or more in five.
Only Hearts have netted against them at Parkhead, with that over a month ago before a new-look defence had much time to really gel together.
Dundee Utd have won just once in their last four appearances, a 1-0 triumph over local rivals Dundee. They may have picked up a point visiting St. Mirren, but went down by two-goal margins as they lost out to both Hearts (2-0) and Hibernian (3-1).
Celtic have won each of their past five matches hosting Dundee Utd since 2014/15 by at least three clear goals, scoring 21 times across these games, wand should simply have too much for their visitors going forwards.
PREDICTION:
CELTIC -2 HANDICAP
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