Celtic manager Ronny Deila insists his team's visit to Aberdeen on Saturday comes far too early in the season to be of real significance to the Ladbrokes Premiership title race.
The Hoops won all four meetings between the clubs last term on the way to their fourth successive title - the first under the Norwegian - but Deila admits the Dons have improved.
Last season's runners-up have won all five league games and are going for a club-record sixth victory, which has served to increase belief that the challenge presented to the champions by Derek McInnes' men will be more formidable than the one which left them 17 points adrift in the last campaign
However, Deila, whose side travel north on 16 points - one ahead of Aberdeen, having played a game more - played down the importance of the match.
"Last year we started talking about the title race in January. Now we start in September," he said.
"We're going to play a lot of matches and nothing will be finished after Saturday but the team who wins that game will put themselves in a better position and get energy and confidence for the next games.
"I think Aberdeen are a better team this year than last year because they have consistency.
"They have brought in a couple of good players as well, they have kept their team and have more experience than last year.
"They have started well so it's going to be a tough game.
"We go into every game to win and that's what we want, to go to Aberdeen and get three points and that would, of course, put us in a very good position."
"But it's very early to talk about winning and losing the league."
While conceding that Aberdeen have stepped up a level from last season, Deila believes his side have also improved.
The former Stromsgodset boss said: "Everything is going the right way, everything we've done, winning games and progressing.
"If you look at points compared to last year and goal difference compared to last year, everything is going the right way.
"I think we were a little bit lucky in the first game against Aberdeen last season when we won in the last second but the other games we deserved to win and we got better throughout the season.
"The tempo of our play got better and better, and that's the strength of Aberdeen as well.
"We coped much better during the season and we've got players with legs that can hurt them, and we did that and defended well."
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