John Barnes believes Celtic have been "complacent" during their period of Scottish football domination and Rangers are now in a position to capitalise.
Rangers beat Neil Lennon's men 2-0 earlier this month, and former Parkhead boss Barnes says Steven Gerrard now has enough quality in his side to mount a serious title challenge.
The Ibrox side currently hold a six-point lead at the top of the table, although Celtic have a game in hand. With Ten In A Row on the line, Barnes believes this could be Rangers' season.
He said: “Steven Gerrard and Rangers didn’t end up challenging Celtic last season because Celtic are simply still better than them. Rangers have been playing catch up to Celtic over the last five seasons so regardless of the mistakes that Gerrard made last season, Celtic still would’ve gone on to win the league.
"Rangers played well for two-thirds of the season, but then it all caught up with them and Celtic took advantage. However, this season Rangers look stronger, Celtic have lost a few players so maybe they are getting complacent.
“A complacent Celtic over the last nine seasons would have easily won the league still, which they have done. With Rangers playing in the lower divisions for the first four seasons, and then finally coming back into the Premiership, but have not been able to compete with Celtic, it’s not been easy.
"Each season they have got stronger and stronger and hungrier so this season, they will give it a good go. Celtic have been quite complacent over the years and that’s been enough for them to win the league, whereas this year it probably won’t be enough.”
Barnes believes the weight of Celtic competing for a historic tenth successive title could have an impact on both sides.
He said: “There could be added pressure on Celtic to win the league for the 10th year in a row, but this also puts pressure on Rangers as they will be desperate not to let them win it again.
"When Celtic have all their players back and fit, then it will take a lot of hard work for Rangers to stop them, but currently, they are dealing with the pressure because they’re performing well.
“It’s similar with PSG and them winning the French league so easily every year, when it comes to Champions League games, they struggle as they get complacent due to the lack of effort they need to put in each week in France.
"Rangers need to make sure that they capitalize on the complacency which they are starting to do because now they have better quality players so they are getting closer to Celtic – they need to make sure they keep it going and playing their football, and for Celtic, they need to try to get out of this funk they are currently in.”
John Barnes was speaking to BonusCodeBets
