📊 Form Guide

Celtic

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Celtic will be looking to improve on their last outing here following the 1-3 Premiership defeat in their last game at the hands of Rangers.

In that game, Celtic had 65% possession and 21 shots at goal with 9 on target. The only player on the scoresheet for Celtic was Hyun-jun Yang (19'). At the other end, Rangers had 9 shots at goal with 4 on target. Youssef Chermiti (50', 59') and Mikey Moore (71') scored for Rangers.

Celtic have been conceding pretty frequently recently, although they’ve also found ways to convert their own chances into goals. Analysis of their previous 6 games shows that Celtic have seen their goal breached in 6 of them in addition to scoring in 5 of those matches.

Dundee United

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After suffering a loss in their previous game against Dundee in Premiership competition, Dundee United will be hoping to turn things around here.

In that game, Dundee United had 55% possession and 22 attempts on goal with 5 of them on target. Dundee had 16 attempts at goal with 3 of them on target. Ashley Hay (45') scored for Dundee.

Looking at their form, and Dundee United have been scored against in 5 of their last 6 games, seeing opposing sides hit 5 goals in all. At the back, Dundee United can certainly do much better. Previous results aside, we must now wait to see whether the trend might be maintained in this upcoming match.

Looking at the pre-match facts, Dundee United:

• have not registered a win against Celtic in games played away from home for the previous 47 matches in the league. A truly shameful run of away results.
• are unbeaten in their last 2 league matches away from home.

↔️ Head to head

A review of their past head-to-head clashes stretching back to 29/01/2023 shows us that Celtic have won 4 of them and Dundee United 1, with the tally of draws being 1.

15 goals were produced between them throughout the course of those matches, with 13 for The Bhoys and 2 netted by The Tangerines. The average number of goals per game works out to 2.5.

The last league contest featuring the two was Premiership match day 11 on 17/12/2025 when it ended Dundee United 2-1 Celtic.

That time, Dundee United managed 26% possession and 16 shots on goal with 7 of them on target. The goalscorers were Krisztián Keresztes (58') and Zac Sapsford (61').

Celtic had 17 attempts at goal with 2 of them on target. Daizen Maeda (13') scored.

The referee was John Beaton.

📰 Team News: Celtic

Cameron Carter-Vickers (Achilles tendon problems), Alistair Johnston (Hamstring muscle injury) and Callum Osmand (Hamstring muscle injury) won’t be able to feature for Celtic boss Martin O'Neill.

We are thinking that The Bhoys should use the 3-4-2-1 formation this time and select Kasper Schmeichel, Tony Ralston, Auston Trusty, Kieran Tierney, Hyun-jun Yang, Callum McGregor, Arne Engels, Luke McCowan, Benjamin Nygren, Daizen Maeda and Johnny Kenny.

🗞️ Team News: Dundee United

We are inclined to think that The Tangerines will likely play in a 3-4-3 lineup, giving starts to Dave Richards, Iurie Iovu, Bert Esselink, Krisztián Keresztes, Luca Stephenson, Craig Sibbald, Panutche Camará, Will Ferry, Zachary Sapsford, Max Watters and Amar Fatah.

✨ Prediction

We’re inclined to think that Dundee United will manage to breach the defence of this Celtic side, however it possibly won’t quite prevent them from conceding a couple at the other end.

Our tip is for a very close game with a 2-1 winning margin for Celtic at full-time. Let’s wait and see how it plays out.

Peter Guest, 09:03 08/01/2026