How Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers reacted to bullish 'Rangers were coming' claim after latest derby triumph

Brendan Rodgers has shrugged off talk of Rangers getting closer to his Celtic side after being repeatedly told about their recent resurgence - insisting it is nothing new to him.

The Hoops boss celebrated his team's 2-1 Old Firm victory over the Ibrox side as they moved eight points clear in the title race, having played two games more than Philippe Clement's men.

Paulo Bernardo and Kyogo Furuhashi scored in either half before James Tavernier's late free-kick set up a tense end to the match. But the Hoops held firm to deny the ten-man Gers from rescuing a late share of the spoils and subsequently dented the progress of their rivals under new manager Clement.

The Scottish champions recently suffered two league defeats on the bounce to Kilmarnock and Hearts, prompting some supporters to chant "sack the board", but Rodgers opted to address background noise suggesting that his team were 'in crisis' post-match.

Opting to lay out his successful record against Rangers (won 12, drawn one, lost two of 15 Old Firm derbies), the Northern Irishman played down any notion he felt concerned about their opponents 16-game winning streak.

Asked if the victory had helped Celtic “reassert authority” after a period of mixed results, Rodgers stated: "Over my two spells here I’ve worked against five Rangers managers and every time Rangers 'were coming'. Every time at some point. So for me, it’s it’s normal.

"If I listened to media and press then we would be in constant crisis mode and constant fear of Rangers. But it’s the fifth manager now. So for me, my focus is only on Celtic and concentrated very much on here and a lot of the stuff that maybe does go around, thankfully I ignore it.

"But I think we showed today that with a team that still missing key players and players that would make the difference for us then that we’re competitive and we can play football and we can compete and that’s what we’ll continually do."

Rodgers did, however, pay tribute to Rangers recent transformation since Clement was appointed manager in October. "There’s no doubt, Phillip has improved Rangers," he added. "There’s no mistake about that. He’s come in, he’s used his experience, his common sense has set the team up well.

"They’re competitive and they play as a team. So we knew it was going to be a challenge for us. But like I’ve said before, we had to be super brave. We have to take on the challenge and that’s what I’ve always done when I’ve been here."