The numbers behind Rangers' historic 2020/21 title winning season
Nine years after financial ruin forced the club into liquidation and to start afresh in the bottom tier of the Scottish Football League, Rangers are back on top in 2021 and have enjoyed a truly spectacular season as they wrestled back domestic control from Old Firm rivals Celtic.
Rangers returned to the Scottish Premiership in 2015 and have seen improvement year-on-year since, accumulating more points and gradually rising up the table.
They started to get closer to Celtic in Steven Gerrard’s first season as manager in 2018/19, improved on their own points-per-game tally in 2019/20 and have blown the former champions out of the water in 2020/21.
To start with, it is Rangers’ 55th Scottish title, which is a world record in a domestic league. Northern Ireland’s Linfield are right behind and are on course to win their own 55th league title. Celtic are the only other club in the world with more than 50, while Olympiacos will soon win a 46th in Greece.
The title was secured as early as 7 March and the gap now remains 20 points. In terms of the date, it is the earliest a Scottish title has been won since 1903.
With only five games of the campaign left to play, Rangers are unbeaten and stand to record only the fourth undefeated season in Scottish history if it stays that way. It would be a first unbeaten campaign for the club since 1898/99, and their first in a 38-game season.
Rangers have a 100% record at home in the league this season and have dropped only 10 points from the 33 games played so far.
That also means they have the chance to hit the 100-points milestone in the top flight for the first time in their history. They need 11 more points to hit three figures and have 15 left to play for. Even if they don’t get to 100, it could still be a new club record as the existing bar is 97 from 2002/03.
Rangers have scored 78 goals in 33 league games so far, which will almost certainly end with a best league tally since relegation. But it is defensively that they have truly dominated, conceding only 10 times – an average of 0.3 goals against per game.
With 24 clean sheets, they have equalled the Scottish record for most shutouts in a single season, which was set by Celtic in 2001/02. One more in the five outstanding games and they will break it.
The Scottish record for fewest goals conceded in a single season is 17 by Celtic in 2014/15. With Rangers only on 10 after 33 games, that record will also be theirs if they concede six or fewer goals in the remaining five fixtures.
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