CELTIC captain Scott Brown believes Aberdeen and not Rangers will be his side's closest challengers for this season's Ladbrokes Scottish Premier League.

And while he did not completely dismiss the Ibrox club's chances, the midfielder name-dropped Hearts as the other team who he felt could stop the charge to six titles in a row.

When asked who would be the biggest threat to Celtic's crown, Brown said: "I think Aberdeen after the last couple of seasons. They have been exciting to watch and have taken points off us at Celtic Park. We struggled up there so we'll need to do a bit better this season."

And when asked to comment on how Rangers will fare, he added: "We'll see when it comes. That's the fifth game of the season and we have a few before that.

"Aberdeen and Hearts have been great in the last few seasons and we expect more of the same from those two.

"It (the Rangers match) will be good. A Rangers-Celtic game is always good in a packed stadium but we have a lot of big games. That's down the line."

Brown was full of praise for new manager Brendan Rodgers and the style of football he is trying to ingrain into the Celtic players.

The two have forged a close bond and the team leader believes the supporters are in for a treat.

"Training has been exceptional. He's a great manager to work under," said Brown. "He had Swansea and Liverpool playing good football and we are trying to do that too. We have a long way to go but everyone is enjoying it.

"The manager has already strengthened the team with Kolo (Toure) and Moussa (Dembele), and hopefully we can improve. We are determined to defend the title this season.

"Last season was a little bit disappointing overall - but we still got the job done. Hopefully we can do the same this year."

This time last summer all the talk coming out of the club, mostly from Ronny Deila, was about winning a Treble.

You won't hear that this time because winning the league again is by far the most important goal, not a clean sweep which is difficult in any era, plus the Champions League group stages which Celtic can take a big step towards by beating Astana on Wednesday night.

"We have started off well in the Champions League qualifiers and hopefully we can push on in the league," said Brown. "The league is always the priority. It's huge for us to get six-in-a-row. We fought hard last season and we deserved it.

"We could have nicked another goal over there and we are looking forward to Wednesday.These games will stand us in good stead for the league. We are eight or nine games deep already and hopefully that helps us."