Celtic’s Opening-Day Dominance Continues

History leans heavily in green and white when Celtic step out on the first day of a league season. Under Martin O’Neill, that tradition has been close to ruthless.

O’Neill has taken charge of five league openers as Celtic manager and won four of them. The only blemish is a goalless draw with Dunfermline in 2003-04, a reminder that even dominant sides occasionally misfire, but rarely for long.

This latest campaign begins with a quirk. It is only the second time in Celtic’s history that they have opened a league season on a Monday. The last time it happened, in 1921-22, they brushed Raith Rovers aside 4-0. A different era, different players, same message: Celtic tend to start with a statement.

Recent champions in Scotland have followed that script with remarkable consistency. The reigning title holders have won on matchday one in each of the past 14 seasons, racking up an aggregate score of 43-7 since Rangers were held 1-1 by Hearts in 2011-12. The pressure on champions is supposed to be heavy; the numbers suggest they’ve worn it lightly.

Celtic, when beginning a season as champions, have been even more relentless. They have won their opening league game in each of the last 14 occasions they’ve started a campaign as title holders, stretching back to a 0-0 draw with Kilmarnock in 2007-08. That stalemate is the outlier in a run that otherwise screams authority.

Dundee walk straight into that storm.

Their own opening-day record in the Premiership tells a far grimmer story. They have failed to win their first match in each of their last six top-flight campaigns, drawing three and losing three since a 3-1 victory over Ross County in 2016-17. The pattern is stubborn. The first whistle of a new season has not been kind.

Celtic Park only tightens the grip of history. Celtic have won 23 of their last 24 home league openers, the only slip a 0-0 draw with Kilmarnock in that same 2007-08 season that keeps reappearing as the exception to so many of their rules. On matchday one, in front of their own crowd, they almost always find a way.

For Dundee, the venue has long been unforgiving. They have lost 23 of their past 25 away games at Celtic in all competitions, drawing the other two. The last time they walked out of Glasgow with a win was a 2-0 success in May 2001 under Ivano Bonetti. That result now belongs to another footballing age.

So the stage is set: a champion club that treats opening day as a ritual of dominance, against visitors who have spent two decades trying and failing to turn Celtic Park into anything other than a graveyard of good intentions.

If Dundee are to rip up the script, they will have to go through one of the most stubborn records in Scottish football.