The New Year Rangers vs Celtic showdown is fast approaching and the mind games have already kicked in.

Today in the papers Michael Beale has stated that Rangers should only be three points behind their fierce rivals having lost the opening derby fixture of the season.

"The difference is nine points, but we’ve only played each other once and they won that game, deservedly," he said. "So, the difference should be three points, shouldn’t it? It should. We are six points behind against the other teams in the league, the other 10 that we play. That is the disappointing thing.

"If it just came down to Old Firms it would be more interesting, but you have to beat everybody else. That’s the key message. If the problem had been that we had only dropped points in that one game we would have a chance, on the second of January, to even it up.

"As it stands that ain’t going to be enough. We have to win all the other games. Unless we can go on a run of winning in big batches of games it is very hard to get to where we want to get in Scotland, full stop.

"It is very much us or Celtic every season when it starts so you have to beat everybody else and do well in the Old Firms, so for me both games are only worth three points. And the three points against Motherwell are the most important three points."

Here we examine where the Premiership's leading duo have gone wrong this term.

Rangers

The first dropped points of the season came against Hibernian on August 20. Two red cards for Alfredo Morelos and John Lundstram did not help matters as Josh Campbell struck in the 93rd minute to gain Hibs a point. 

A first defeat of the campaign then arrived at the hands of Celtic and there was simply no contest in this one. Ange Postecoglou's side were streaks ahead of Rangers and it showed in the 4-0 scoreline.

The Champions League group stages then arrived and embarrassingly heavy defeats to Ajax, Napoli and Liverpool saw things unravel for Giovanni van Bronkhorst.

A 1-1 draw with Livingston was then followed by a devastating 2-1 defeat to St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park as pressure was piled on the Dutchman.

A 1-1 draw to St Mirren in Paisley was the final straw for Van Bronckhorst and he was subsequently axed as manager during the international break.

Losing the first goal in games has been a major issue for Rangers this season. As we told previously, after 55 games since their title winning season under Steven Gerrard, the Ibrox club had gone behind in 22 of those, a percentage of 40. 

Since then Rangers have gone to Dingwall and recorded a 1-0 victory with an all-important clean sheet. Michael Beale will be hoping for more of the same as they take on Motherwell tonight.

Celtic

In comparison, Celtic have only dropped three points this season, with one defeat coming at the hands of St Mirren.

After the shock in Paisley Postecoglou's side bounced back in fine fashion and have never had a slip-up since.

Celtic have gone behind in just seven games in their 55 league matches since losing out on 10-in-a-row to Rangers. This is just 13 per cent of their fixtures.

This record certainly helped win the title last season and it is playing a huge role in Postecoglou's team sitting in the top spot currently this campaign.

Late goals have also been a huge help to Celtic, but they have also helped their rivals Rangers.

Since the start of last season, the 2021/22 campaign, both clubs have amassed the exact same amount of points from 75-minutes onwards. 

the underlying stats showcase that both teams have gained the same amount of points in the dying stages of games.

That figure stands at 20 points to date.

The major differential between the sides with this statistic, though, is that Rangers have had to come from behind to achieve this more often than their arch Glasgow rivals.