Glasgow Rangers once again failed to step up when they needed to in the Old Firm as they were beaten 3-0 at Parkhead in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday.
Head coach Philippe Clement has now lost four and drawn one of his five encounters with Celtic since he arrived at the club last year, which illustrates the gulf between the two sides at this time.
Goals from Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi put the hosts in control in the first half, before Callum McGregor struck, via a deflection from Dujon Sterling, a third from distance in the second 45.
It was a terrible afternoon for the Gers across Glasgow and, in particular, for captain James Tavernier, who struggled once again in the Old Firm.
James Tavernier's struggles
The English full-back made the worst possible start to a league meeting between the two sides in April when his slow clearance rebounded off Maeda to give Celtic the lead inside one minute back in April.
This time, it took until the 17th minute for the Japan international to make the most of Tavernier's lacklustre defensive work, as he stole a march on the defender to nip across him and fire in the opener from Alistair Johnston's pull-back.
Tavernier did make three tackles and two interceptions during the match and won seven of his 13 duels, but that did not make up for his critical error for Maeda's opener.
The skipper was also fortunate not to see a positional mistake pounced upon when Nicolas Kuhn weaved a pass through to find Reo Hatate in acres of space where Tavernier should have been, only for the midfielder to fire high and wide from six yards out.
Cyriel Dessers' Old Firm issue
Cyriel Dessers, who was handed a match rating of 3/10 by GlasgowWorld's Lewis Anderson, was criticised by former Gers striker Billy Dodds on BBC Sportsound, as the ex-forward said that the Nigeria international's efforts were "not good enough".
He was even worse than Tavernier, who at least created three chances and one 'big chance' for his teammates, as the attacker struggled in and out of possession.
The former Cremonese number nine has now scored one goal in six appearances against Celtic in the Old Firm clashes, whilst Kyogo has managed eight goals in 15 games against Rangers. That illustrates the difference in quality between the strikers of the two sides.
Minutes played
90
Shots
2
Goals
0
Key passes
1
Duels won
2/9
Lost possession
15x
As you can see in the table above, Dessers made little impact at the top end of the pitch, with zero goals and only one chance created, and was dominated off the ball.
Tavernier, at least, created one 'big chance' for the team and looked to make things happen in the final third, whereas, the striker offered very little.
Dessers was also a lightweight when Rangers needed him to hold the ball up and alleviate pressure, as he lost a whopping seven of his nine duels, and these statistics show that he was nowhere near good enough in or out of possession.
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