This season the Premiership could be more competitive than ever.
Early days yet but there are quite a few teams struggling, big teams at that.
There’s obviously a big gap between Rangers and Celtic and the rest, there always is.
But I really don’t see either of the Glasgow pair having improved from last season.
The Hoops have changed manager and are clearly in transition, not at their best, while the Gers are not happy with their lot right now after some poor results.
Their new signings don’t look great, really missing some verve and energy in attack to me.
Then there’s Hibs, who have already sacked their manager.
Just three games into the league season and Lee Johnson is shown the door and the Easter Road club have big issues to sort out.
But then go and beat Aberdeen at Pittodrie to show that, despite spending a fair bit of cash on new players, the Dons can be beaten up the road.
They only have two points from their opening four games.
Issues to solve
Barry Robson is an inexperienced manager, as is Steven Naismith, and I do wonder if both those jobs are too big, too soon. If Naismith is the manager, of course…
Because Hearts find themselves in a bit of bother, too.
With Lawrence Shankland and Liam Boyce in attack, I really don’t think they should have any trouble picking up results this season.
But back-to-back defeats and dumped out of Europe, there are issues to solve at the back and in midfield.
Having seen them at Dens Park 10 days ago, they were very poor in the first half but impressive when Boyce came on.
Then as soon as Dundee scored, there was nothing from the Jambos.
That’s the traditional top five Premiership clubs all under a bit of pressure and with problems to solve.
Then you’ve got St Johnstone. Saints have shown a bit of grit in the last two games to pick up two points.
But they were outplayed by the Dark Blues for 80 minutes at the weekend and were pretty poor overall in my view.
And they should really have had no chance of coming back in that game, had the Dee put their chances away.
There for the taking
Elsewhere, Livingston and Ross County have made decent starts while St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Motherwell have been strong.
Dundee have played those latter two, drawing with ’Well and losing at St Mirren.
On both occasions they felt like they could’ve got more than they did.
That’s generally been the overall feeling in Tony Docherty’s start to life as a manager at Dens.
Add all that in together and it feels like top six is there for the taking for the unfancied Premiership teams, maybe better for one or two.
I include Dundee in that.
It’s not been a perfect start but generally they look a very solid outfit at this level with players who, on their day, can come up with real quality.
This could easily come crashing down at Celtic next time out, of course!
But there’s a real opportunity for someone to gatecrash the top end of the Premiership table this season.
I’ve seen no reason so far why that can’t be Dundee.
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