Celtic vs Dundee Utd Prediction

Form: two very different runs

Across their last 20 matches, Celtic have won 12, drawn three and lost five, scoring 40 goals along the way. Dundee Utd's equivalent run reads seven wins, four draws and nine defeats, with more goals conceded than scored.

Celtic: 20 completed matches; Dundee Utd: 20 completed matches.

Celtic

20 matches

Win

60% 12 / 20

Draw

15% 3 / 20

Loss

25% 5 / 20

Scored

40

Conceded

28

Difference

+12

Dundee Utd

20 matches

Win

35% 7 / 20

Draw

20% 4 / 20

Loss

45% 9 / 20

Scored

28

Conceded

31

Difference

-3

Celtic's recent weeks have actually been a bit bumpier than that overall record suggests, with defeats to Rangers home and away and a loss to Ferencvarosi mixed in among Premiership wins. Dundee Utd's form has dipped further still, taking just one point from their last four league outings, with their only notable result in that spell being the League Cup win over Celtic itself.

Celtic remain the stronger side over a longer sample, but neither team is flying right now.

Comparative Team Statistics: Celtic vs Dundee Utd

Head-to-head: Celtic Park has been kind to the hosts

Looking back through these fixtures, Celtic have generally been dominant when hosting Dundee Utd, with wins including 4-0, 4-2, 3-0 and 2-0 among the meetings at their own ground. Dundee Utd have had more joy when playing at home themselves, including that League Cup upset in August and a 2-0 league win back in March.

So the venue seems to matter here. Dundee Utd's better results against Celtic have tended to come on their own patch, not at Celtic Park.

Table position: a clear gap

Seven games into the season, Celtic sit top with 18 points from six wins and just one defeat. Dundee Utd are down in eighth on eight points, having won only two of their seven league matches.

That's a ten-point gap already, and it lines up with everything the form and head-to-head numbers are showing.

Players making the difference

Celtic's scoring is spread around, with C. Durán and B. Nygren both on three goals from seven matches and K. Høgh on three from just four. That kind of shared output suggests they don't rely on one man to create chances.

Celtic:

Best scorers:

C. Durán - 3

B. Nygren - 3

K. Høgh - 3

Best assist providers:

C. Durán - 3

B. Nygren - 3

K. Tierney - 2

Penalty cards:

Colby Donovan x 2

Dundee Utd:

Best scorers:

J. Randall - 2

Best assist providers:

J. Randall - 2

M. Merghem - 2

Penalty cards:

E. Agyei x 1

D. Bennie x 3

L. Rose x 2

Dundee Utd's leading scorer, J. Randall, has two goals in seven matches, which tells its own story about their attacking output this season. One disciplinary note worth flagging is that Dundee Utd's E. Agyei has already picked up a red card in only four matches, though that's not evidence he'll be missing for this particular game.