THEY say that form doesn’t matter in an Old Firm game, that anything can happen in the Glasgow derby match, that only a fool would predict the outcome when Celtic play Rangers.

So it is perhaps unwise to speculate about what will happen when the city rivals meet for the first time in the 2016/17 season in the Ladbrokes Premiership at Celtic Park at noon on Saturday, September 10. Or who will come out on top in the current campaign. At the moment especially.

There are still three weeks to go until the first league match between the Parkhead and Ibrox clubs in over four years. Players can improve their fitness and find form between now and then. New signings can also be made between now and the close of the summer transfer window on Wednesday week.

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Joey Barton, Niko Kranjcar, Jordan Rossiter, Martyn Waghorn and Joe Garner, who finally completed his £1.5 million move to Rangers from Preston North End at the weekend, may all be in peak physical condition by the time the fixture kicks off.The Herald: Rangers' Harry Forrester (second from right) celebrates his equaliser

Philippe Senderos, the former Arsenal, Fulham and Switzerland centre half who is training at Auchenhowie for a second week and whose representative is also in talks with club officials about signing a permanent deal, could also have joined by then.

But it is, after their second underwhelming performance in the top flight in three outings, very difficult to see how Mark Warburton’s side can get the better of Brendan Rodgers’s team, either in their meeting next month or this term, at the present time.

Despite the extensive strengthening work that Warburton has carried out during the summer and the high calibre of player he has brought in, Rangers are failing to impress. Beating Celtic in a one-off game never mind challenging them for the league title appears beyond them just now. The defending champions are operating at a far higher level.

Read more: Forrester expects old sparring partner Garner to make his mark up front for Rangers

Having failed to beat Hamilton at home in their opening league fixture and after toiling for long spells away against Dundee, they struggled against Motherwell at Ibrox on Saturday. The 2-1 victory they recorded was fortuitous.

They could have had no complaints when Scott McDonald put the visitors in front with a typically opportunist close-range strike in the first half and were fortunate when he failed to net early in the second. Only a fine reaction from goalkeeper Wes Foderingham denied the one-time Celtic man.The Herald: Rangers' Harry Forrester (left) celebrates with team-mate Kenny Miller after scoring the equaliser

Yes, the two goals the Championship winners scored in the second half to win the game were well-worked. Harry Forrester did superbly to keep his shot from the edge of the Motherwell area down and equalise and Kenny Miller buried the winner in injury-time clinically.

Yet, the euphoria that greeted a dramatic late victory which kept Rangers a point ahead of Celtic, who have played a game less than them, at the top of the league table couldn’t cover up their failings. Their opponents created better chances and would have won, or at least drawn, if they had been sharper in the final third.

Mark McGhee’s side certainly performed well. They were well-organised and hard-working throughout the 90 minutes. They are, however, by no means exceptional by Premiership standards. They will certainly be hoping to finish in the top six and possibly even push for a place in Europe in the months ahead. But they went in to the game on the back of a heavy 5-0 defeat at the hands of Celtic and a 2-1 loss to St. Johnstone.

How will Rangers fare against a Celtic side buoyed massively by the appointment of Rodgers, improved considerably by the acquisitions of Moussa Dembele, Scott Sinclair and Kolo Toure and being roared on by over 50,000 of their fans? If they produce the same sort of insipid showing as they did in the opening 45 minutes on Saturday then they will be defeated and, what is more, defeated soundly.

Forrester accepted that Rangers had once again been below their best. But he took heart from the fact that the Ibrox club collected another three points while failing to fire – something that all league winners do during the course of a season – and expressed confidence there would be a stark improvement when the new arrivals and old players gel.

“We have been promoted, we have had new boys come in, a lot of new signings have been made,” he said. “Things don’t click into gear straight away. It is pleasing to see that, even though we don’t feel at our best yet, we are still picking up points.

“Ideally we want to put on a show at home. A lot of people come to watch us and we would like to put on a show for them. But sometimes it is about grit and determination and never giving up. We know what we have in the dressing room and that showed out there. We get down to work and even when our backs are against the wall we come out fighting.”

Keith Lasley, the Motherwell captain and midfielder, felt the Fir Park club’s inferior strength in depth ultimately cost them a memorable result. “Possibly we didn’t have the options on the bench,” he said. “We’ve got two or three guys out that you’d probably class as first-team starters and you miss that.

"It maybe looks a wee bit bare although that’s not to say the guys there aren’t capable. I’m sure the manager said himself that they’ve not had that experience yet of playing in an atmosphere like this in a high pressure situation. That said, to lose the game regardless, is just really disappointing.”