Just three games remain of the 2023/24 Premiership season and there is much left to be decided. 

None more so than the fate of the league title, which could go down to the wire between Celtic and Rangers.

As things stand, with 35 games played, Celtic sit pretty at the top of the table with 84 points. 

Brendan Rodgers watched on with glee as his champions comfortably put three past the third-best team in the country, Hearts, on Saturday afternoon.

Rangers responded a day later with a routine win over their own. Philippe Clement's men won 4-1 against Kilmarnock, who were reduced to 10 men after 20 minutes.

This maintained the three-point gap that has been in place for the last few weeks, as Rangers climbed up to 81 points.

The teams meet at Celtic Park this weekend for the early kick-off on Saturday. A win for Celtic would all but seal three in a row for the club, as they would open up a six-point gap with just two games left to play. 

However, should Clement's team manage to gain all three points at their arch-rivals, then it would very much be game on heading into the final week of the campaign. 

It's important to note that Celtic are still likely to be top of the pile no matter the outcome of Saturday's game.

And that brings us nicely to the overarching point of this piece - goal difference.

The reason that Celtic are still likely to sit first, even if Rangers do win at Parkhead, is because of their superior goal difference of five. The Hoops have a GD of 58, while Rangers' sits at 53.

Of course, Rangers could go to the east end of Glasgow and thump the Hoops, which could see them leapfrog Celtic on Saturday. But even the most optimistic Rangers supporter would probably concede this is unlikely. 

It's certainly not out of the question that the visitors could win at Celtic Park, though, which would bring the teams level on points at least, and therefore put incredible emphasis on the importance of goal difference heading into the final two fixtures. Even a draw between the sides keeps goal difference at the forefront of everyone's minds.

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Rangers play Dundee at home on Tuesday, May 14 before finishing at Tynecastle on Saturday, May 18. Celtic, meanwhile, face a trip to Kilmarnock on Wednesday, May 15 before rounding off the season with a home game against St Mirren.

It's been a while since we've seen this column of the league table play such a significant role, but we have seen this film before. 

If we cast our minds back to the 2002/03 season, Rangers famously lifted the SPL title under Alex McLeish with a final day 6-1 hammering of Dunfermline. Celtic thumped Killie 4-0 at Rugby Park, but due to Rangers' superior GD, the title ended up at Ibrox that year.

The Hoops have previous of emerging triumphant in the league title stakes on goal difference too. In the 1985/86 season, Celtic pipped Hearts to the crown.

Whatever the outcome of this season is, we don't know yet. However, the facts of the matter right now as Celtic are three points and five goals better off than Rangers.

So, if the Ibrox club are to re-claim the title, then not only will they need to beat Celtic this weekend, but they'll need to start outscoring them in the final matches too, depending on how the goal difference table stands after the derby match.