Celtic were 17 points better than the rest of the Premiership last season and Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes believes the champions now have a stronger squad to continue their domination.
Ten-man Aberdeen came from behind to defeat Celtic 2-1 at Pittodrie last month through Paul Quinn’s late winner after Jonny Hayes was red carded – a win which helped take the Dons five points clear after eight league games.
The Dons have not beaten Celtic home and away in the league since the 1990-91 season when Alex Smith and Jocky Scott’s side lost the league championship on the final day of the season to Rangers – and have lost 20 successive league games at Parkhead.
The scale of the task facing Aberdeen on Saturday is obvious, but McInnes is determined his side can reduce Celtic’s lead at the top of the table to a single point with victory at Parkhead.
The Aberdeen manager said: “We know what it takes to win against Celtic having beaten them a few weeks ago, as well as in previous seasons.
“This season, I think Celtic are still showing the same attacking threat that they had last season.
“But I think they have a better all-round squad than last season, although they have lost two key players in central defence in Jason Denayer and Virgil van Dijk.
“They were a formidable partnership and would be in most leagues. They were as strong a partnership as the SPFL has seen in many years.
“But they have spent £5.5million on Jozo Simunovic and taken Tyler Blackett on loan from Manchester United so they have brought in players of quality, who, once they get to know each other, will probably prove their worth.”
McInnes, who has defenders Andrew Considine and Ash Taylor available after illness and injury, was encouraged by his team’s display against Motherwell as they ended a four-game losing streak with a hard-fought 1-1 draw.
But the Aberdeen manager accepts his side will have to play better if they are to emerge from the Parkhead encounter with a win.
He said: “There was a big improvement for the majority of the match, but I still don’t think we are where we want to be in terms of what we are capable of.
“We were unfortunate not to get the second goal against Motherwell as Mark Reynolds’ offside goal should have stood.
“If we had got the second goal then Motherwell would have been dead and buried.
“We wanted to win the game, but the performance was far more like what I expect from us.
“On Saturday we will have to make sure we fully concentrate when we defend because Celtic have players who don’t need much of an opportunity to hurt the opposition.
“We have to make sure we nullify their danger but we are not going there to defend for 90 minutes.
“We have to have a way of playing that also asks questions of them.”