Ash Taylor believes Aberdeen can make it a hat-trick of Pittodrie victories against Celtic in today’s showdown at noon.
The Dons defeated Celtic 2-1 in both home games last season but today’s challenge presents a much tougher proposition than the side they faced when Ronny Deila was in charge at Parkhead.
With Brendan Rodgers now at the helm, Celtic have raced to the Scottish Premiership summit, opening up a seven point gap with a game in hand.
They have already netted 30 times in nine matches – 13 more than the Dons, who are the division’s second highest scorers.
Taylor, who is expected to recover from a thigh strain in time for today’s match, accepts the Dons defence are in for a difficult 90 minutes as they bid to shut-out the country’s most potent strike-force.
But the 26-year-old believes the Dons are more than capable of recording a third successive home win against Celtic.
He said: “We beat them twice last season at Pittodrie so I don’t see why we can’t do it again.
“Their forwards are in form and they have got a bit of confidence.
“We’ve just got to concentrate on our jobs and look to stop them.
“When forwards are playing with confidence they look capable of scoring at any given moment so we’ve just got to stay switched on.
“We’ve got the squad to do it. We can talk about their threats but we’ve also got threats in our team that can cause them problems.”
The principal challenge for Taylor will be to snuff out Celtic’s talisman Moussa Dembele.
The 20-year-old Frenchman has scored 15 goals in 21 appearances this term with Manchester United sending a scout to Dingwall to watch him in Celtic’s 4-0 victory on Wednesday.
Taylor said: “He’s strong, quick and full of confidence.
“Our whole back four will have to be switched on to nullify that threat.
“But their midfielders also bomb forward and their rotations are really good so we know we will have to stay focussed and stick to our jobs.”
After missing last weekend’s 2-0 Betfred Cup semi-final victory against Morton and Tuesday’s surprise 1-0 loss at Hamilton, Taylor is looking forward to getting back on the pitch.
He added: “I’m good to go if selected and ready for the big game.
“I’m not one to sit there and watch a game of football, I like to be involved.
“Missing a semi-final was disappointing but it’s good to be back fit and raring to go again.”
