Three reasons to feel really good about Celtic right now

It’s the second international break of the season, and Celtic has given us all a short rest.

Okay, that was my attempt to put a good perspective on what’s going on right now. The truth is that another fortnight without Brendan Rodgers in our lives is excruciating.

This season, Celtic has only played 11 competitive games. That’s eight Premiership wins, seven draws, and three losses in other tournaments.

While our cup record has already provided us with a few lows this season, the truth is that we should all be feeling extremely positive about the way things are going. Here are three of the reasons why.

First and foremost, and this may be stating the obvious, we are in contention for the Premiership title. Yes, it is still early in the season. However, our seven-point lead at the top is all the more astonishing.

Despite our incredible performance last season, we only won the league by seven points. Having that lead already is fantastic and bodes well.

We’ve also won all four of our away games against Rangers, Aberdeen, Livingston, and Motherwell. We’ll be in a stronger position if we can win Hearts and Hibernian on the road before the end of October.

With all of the disappointments we’ve already experienced this season, we couldn’t have envisioned being in this position in the Premiership so early.

Second, this Celtics team will only grow better. In recent weeks, there have been clear indications that we have found our groove. Our last two matches, against Lazio and Kilmarnock, were perhaps our best of the season.

There are indications that the team is beginning to thrive under Rodgers. That will only get better as players like Cameron Carter-Vickers,

Once Rodgers finds a more settled team, and especially at the back, we will see further improvement and solidity. It’s all very exciting.

That leads to the third reason which centres around Europe. Our failures on the continent have been a big disappointment in recent years. This season is no different so far.

Yet, Celtic were great against Lazio and should have won. If we can learn our lessons from that gutting defeat and continue to improve at that level, it stands to reason that the breakthrough win is around the corner.

While our group is a challenge, you wouldn’t really write us off in any one-off match, based on the evidence so far. If we can find a way to beat Atletico Madrid shortly after the resumption, all bets will be off.