Celtic will come to Pittodrie on tomorrow night unbeaten in 60 domestic games.
Brendan Rodgers men’s form last season brought them the Premiership title, as well as the Betfred Cup and Scottish Cup – a remarkable, invincible treble – with the Dons playing second fiddle to them in each competition.
Back in February 2014, Hoops goalkeeper Fraser Forster visited the Granite City with an impressive record of his own.
The keeper hadn’t conceded a goal in 1,256 minutes and his team hadn’t been beaten in 26 games when Jonny Hayes’ 30-yard rocket found the top corner, putting Derek McInnes’ Reds on course for victory.
Forster hadn’t been given a chance to stop Aberdeen’s goal – and it’s exactly this kind of ruthlessness and quality which will be required for the Dons to win on Wednesday.
In Rodgers’ men’s last two games, a 3-0 Champions League defeat to German giants Bayern Munich and a 4-2 win over Hibernian in the Betfred Cup semi-final on Saturday, they’ve shown a degree of defensive vulnerability.
Celtic’s defence totally failed to deal with a cross which lead to Thomas Muller’s opener in Munich, stepping out to leave Robert Lewandowski in miles of space.
There were gaps, too, on Saturday at Hampden, when Steven Whittaker slid a pass right through the defence to put in Oli Shaw to score.
Rodgers has been hit by several defensive injuries this season and this frailty is something Aberdeen can exploit.
However, Derek McInnes’ men have to show up and play the dynamic attacking football they are capable of, but Derek will be thinking about his choice of personnel very carefully after watching the Dons run out of steam against the Hoops in last season’s Scottish Cup final.
He’ll want his players to be physically aggressive and I’d think he’ll keep Anthony O’Connor in front of the defence, while finding a way to get Andy Considine back at left-back and Graeme Shinnie into midfield.
At home, it has always been Derek’s attitude to take the game to Celtic and I think he’ll try to test them, possibly retaining the up front duo of Stevie May and Adam Rooney, which has worked so well of late.
Reaching the top of the table should be incentive alone, just like they did at Pittodrie in September 2015, when Paul Quinn’s volley secured a 2-1 Dons win.
Will reaching the summit matter in the grand scheme of the 2017-18 campaign? Well, it will certainly help the Reds’ confidence.
Even if Aberdeen can’t overhaul Celtic over the whole campaign, they will also be laying down the gauntlet to teams like Rangers that they are Scotland’s second team.
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