STEVEN Gerrard was right to point out yesterday that his team have been “over analysed at certain times”. Although perhaps we can equally expect Teresa May to chime in soon with the observation that there has been a fair amount of media conjecture and navel-gazing going on recently about her Brexit thingy.

Rightly or wrongly – wrongly in the case where the SFA should have a more transparent process for referring compliance issues – intense scrutiny just comes as part of the package at Edmiston Drive. As it does in the East End of the city.

Whether you are a player who might have hoped to get away with a naughty challenge or an off-colour performance, or merely a manager who has let your city rivals rack up a potentially title-winning advantage at the top of the table, you can’t get away with it for long at a club like Rangers. There are plenty on the other side of the city, and sometimes within your own support, who will make sure of that.

Tonight’s Scottish Cup replay against a stubborn and supremely organised Kilmarnock side would always have been a pressure-laden occasion. But recent events have only served to magnify the intensity.

While results haven’t been all bad since the club’s return from their winter training camp in Tenerife, the club’s prospects of challenging for the title have deteriorated rapidly from the upbeat mood when the club stood level on points – albeit having played a game more – after that bravura Old Firm victory in late December.

A second goalless draw in four days without the services of their talisman Alfredo Morelos, against St Johnstone at Ibrox on Saturday, saw Celtic stretch their gap at the top of the table to eight points with a significantly superior goal difference.

While it is not strictly impossible to overhaul such arrears - Rangers would need to defeat their city rivals home and away – and take three more points than the Parkhead side over their remaining matches – the scale of the task to stop Celtic making it eight leagues in a row is becoming gargantuan. The statisticians tell us that such an advantage with 12 matches remaining has never been achieved in the three-point era of the Scottish top flight. Perhaps that is why the Englishman didn’t flinch yesterday from the assertion that the Scottish Cup was now the club’s most realistic chance of silverware. “I think where we sit right here you’re probably right in saying that,” he said.

All the stats are available, capable of being dusted down in support of either the prosecution or the defence. Rangers are just three points better off than they were at this stage last season – a campaign, you must remember, where they ultimately finished 22 points behind Celtic in third. Shouldn’t a squad which has been supported lavishly in the transfer market be expected to have improved rather more significantly than that? Surely there should be alarm bells ringing too about a club prepared to haemorrhage £14m a year?

On the other hand, there are plenty of people out there more than willing to ignore the strides which have been made under Gerrard. The club’s European campaign before last, after all, ended with Pedro Caixinha remonstrating with irate fans in a bush in Luxembourg. By contrast, Rangers acquitted themselves excellently in the Europa League and were only a squeak away from making it into the knock-out stages.

For a man in his first major coaching role, Gerrard hasn’t hid the shortcomings of his players from time to time and has been circumspect throughout when it comes to managing the expectations of supporters impatient for his club to wrest the league title back from their rivals. Yes, the club are too reliant on the goals of Morelos, who has grabbed 23 already and is missed badly on the frequent occasions he is suspended. Yes, despite the arrival of Davis, they struggle to carve open a blanket defence. But in fairness the manager at least made moves to address both failings during the January transfer window. Did anyone realistically expect at the start of the season that Rangers would be league champions?

Paralysis by over analysis, then, but Gerrard shouldn’t be surprised. Because, as used as he is to life at a big club in Liverpool, this isn’t the FA Premier League, where the media can mediate between six major clubs and counting when it comes to each of their respective arguments.

In this league, and particularly in this city – with all apologies to the rest – all that tends to matter is Celtic and Rangers. If one of them is winning, the other one – by definition – is likely to be getting it in the neck. Does anyone care, for instance, if Aberdeen have gained five points less at this stage this season than they did last year?

I see and hear plenty of Ibrox supporters who are encouraged enough about the progress they see being made under Gerrard to mitigate against any knee-jerk reactions. But claiming the Scottish Cup would be the kind of endorsement that would make everyone in Govan feel rather more relaxed about where the club is headed. But with a replay against Kilmarnock, then a visit to Pittodrie, just to reach the last four; Rangers’ Scottish Cup salvation remains as complex to negotiate as Brexit.