Like most football leagues around the world, the COVID-19 brought the Scottish Premiership to its knees. While the likes of the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, La Liga in Spain and the German Bundesliga returned to finish the 2019/20, the SPL decided instead to follow the lead of the Eredivisie and Ligue One and curtail its campaign.
That curtailment meant a ninth straight SPL title for perennial top-flight champions Celtic. The Hoops will kick-off their attempt to win that magical tenth title on Sunday afternoon when they host Hamilton Academicals at Parkhead.
The Hoops finished last season in typical fashion by mounting a ten-game unbeaten run, which included nine victories. However, they have endured a mixed pre-season campaign, drawing with Nice before suffering defeats against Lyon and PSG.
They did redeem themselves against slightly inferior opposition in Ross County and Hibernian though in their final two preparations.
Not only will the home side look to win another domestic, but they will hope to also progress in Europe too, as last season they exited the Europa League at the last-32 stage defeated by Danish team Copenhagen.
Hamilton Academicals finished 11th place in the SPL last season. Strangely the curtailment may have helped them survive the drop. Bottom club Hearts finished four points behind the Accies’ in the table, so may well have got closer to the visitors if the season was not cut short prematurely.
However, the visitors did end the season with a four-game unbeaten run in the SPL, including back-to-back 1-0 wins over Rangers and Kilmarnock, so they may have still survived the drop comfortably anyway.
Having played just two pre-season friendlies, this is a tough ask on the opening day of the new campaign.
Forebet predicts that Celtic will record a victory in a high-scoring clash to kick-off their campaign in a positive manner.