After winning three of their four pre-season matches, scoring 14 goals in the process, Aberdeen were unable to find the net against Livingston and played out a goalless draw at the Tony Macaroni Arena in their first game of the new season last Saturday.
The Dons failed to register a single shot on target, with last season’s top scorer Duk missing the two best chances of the game, but Barry Robson was still able to take some positives from the closely-fought contest, most notably a clean sheet.
Aberdeen’s clash with Livingston is the first of six fixtures in August across three different competitions, with league games against Celtic and St Mirren taking place either side of a Scottish Cup second-round tie with Stirling Albion, while they also have a two-legged tie against either FK Zalgiris or Hacken in the Europa League playoff round to prepare for later this month.
Robson’s men were on the receiving end of a thumping 5-0 defeat to Celtic on the final day of last season, and they enter Sunday’s contest seeking to avoid a fifth consecutive defeat against the Hoops without scoring.
The last time Aberdeen came out on top against Celtic was in May 2018 when they secured a slender 1-0 victory in Glasgow courtesy of a first-half goal from Andrew Considine.
Two months on from winning a historic domestic treble under the tutelage of Ange Postecoglou, Celtic began the defence of their Premiership title with a 4-2 victory over Ross County at Parkhead last Saturday in Brendan Rodgers’s first competitive game of his second spell in charge.
David Turnbull netted either side of a strike from last season’s top scorer Kyogo Furuhashi to put the Hoops in control and three goals ahead at the break. Matt O’Riley then added a fourth after Jordan White had pulled one back for the visitors on the hour mark, before James Brown fired in a consolation goal deep into stoppage time.
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Rodgers has acknowledged that there is plenty of room for improvement from his side, particularly in defence after giving away two “soft” goals, but the Northern Irishman was impressed with his team’s attacking display.
Celtic will be confident of having more joy in front of goal on Sunday as they have scored in each of their last 17 meetings with Aberdeen in all competitions, netting at least twice on 13 occasions.
The Hoops have had to grind out results in recent trips to Pittodrie, though, as they have won their last three visits to Aberdeen by a one-goal margin, including a narrow 1-0 success in December of last year.
