It has been no surprise to hear Rangers players banging the drum this week with their message that the league title race is far from over, with the Ibrox men needing to believe they can still overhaul Celtic despite the points they spilled last week.

It is perhaps even more important though that the Celtic players drive home that message among themselves, and avoid any complacency that their three point advantage may bring.

That is the view of Cameron Carter-Vickers, in any case, with the big defender far from fooled that the job is anywhere near done.

They may have one actual cup final to look forward to at the end of May after the thrilling weekend defeat of Aberdeen at Hampden, he says, but there are also five figurative ones to come before that if Celtic are to achieve their goal of delivering a Double. And, he feels, they may have to win every single one of them.

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The first of those comes at Dens Park on Sunday, and while Carter-Vickers is excited by what the next few weeks may bring for his club, he is stressing that the players cannot allow their focus to turn away from that game against Dundee if they are to maintain their advantage at the top of the standings.

“We’ve got our place in one cup final,” Carter-Vickers said.

“Does it feel like we have five more in the league before then? One hundred per cent.

“We will probably need to win all of games in the league to get to where we want to be.

“They are all big games coming up now – five in the league and then the cup final. So, we’ve six games left, and they are all must-perform and must-win for us.”

Even before the weekend, that was the mantra of Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, and Carter-Vickers and his teammates seem fully on board with his instruction not to ‘soften up’ now that Rangers have handed them an opening.

“One hundred percent,” he said.

“There’s no reason not to be like that.

“It’s still tight in the table. Three points is nothing. That’s one game.

“So, we’re fully focused on trying to perform in the next five league games.”

Carter-Vickers is also not being lulled into thinking that the situation Celtic now find themselves in is down to the team suddenly becoming the finished article, and he is all too aware of the shortcomings in the side – particularly defensively – that were ruthlessly exposed by Aberdeen at the weekend.

That is something both he and his teammates will be looking to address this week before heading to Tayside.

“There’s always room for improvement,” he said.

“Even if you are winning games comfortably, there are always things you can tweak and look to get better at. That’s what we always try to do in training.

“Right now, we’ve got a few days training until the next game against Dundee. We’ll go back to the training ground to just try to improve. That’s what we’ve been trying to do all season.

“It was a crazy game [on Sunday]. I actually thought for some large parts, some of our stuff on the ball was pretty good.

“We created a lot of chances. Obviously, I think defensively there are a few things we can look at and try to improve upon.

“We started getting a bit too deep off the ball which gave them their chances from crosses and second balls and stuff like that. But obviously the positive is just getting into the final.

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“Straight before a game, you try and focus on the performance and try to take the occasion out of it. But afterwards, the result is the most important thing.”

What hasn’t helped Celtic this season of course, particularly when it comes to building up understanding with teammates and improving partnerships on the field, has been the chopping and changing of the line up as injuries have robbed them of key men for long spells.

As well as Carter-Vickers himself, the likes of Reo Hatate and more recently, captain Callum McGregor, have all been absent from the team for extended spells.

With all of their main men now fit – save perhaps for Daizen Maeda – they finally appear to be tooled up though for a big finale.

“I think we are getting close to our strongest side out there now,” Carter-Vickers added.

“It’s always good to come into the last part of the season when you are in full flow and you have a good rhythm about you.

“That’s definitely important for us. If you look at our performances throughout the season, not just those three players you’ve mentioned [him, Hatate and McGregor] but everyone is peaking at the right time.

“That’s always what you are looking for.”