Rangers resumed their league campaign with a 3-0 thrashing in the capital away to Hibernian on Wednesday, taking full advantage of one of their games in hand over Celtic.
It leaves them five points behind their bitter rivals heading into the weekend, with their other game in hand coming against Ross County in mid-February.
Clement will know his side are likely going to need to pick up the maximum of nine points before that encounter, with Celtic back in excellent form.
Their record over St Mirren should give them plenty of confidence, before they also face bottom-placed Livingston and an improving Aberdeen in the next three.
In 48 competitive meetings with St Mirren, Rangers have won 40, remaining unbeaten in their last 11, winning 10.
Their three defeats have all come here in Paisley though, but the last in the league came all the way back in 2011, as St Mirren have only got the better of them in a cup quarter-final since then, in 2020.
The next Old Firm derby does not come around until the penultimate matchday of the regular season, so perfection must be maintained if Rangers want to stay in the title race heading into April.
St Mirren’s dismal record against Rangers falls in line with their recent form too, as they slid down the table late in 2023.
After looking like contenders to finish third earlier in the season, they now find themselves 10 points behind Hearts in that position.
links >> Stream 1 HD Stream 2 HD Stream 3 HD Stream 4 HD
Stephen Robinson’s side won 22 points from their opening 13 games and sat just behind the top two, but they have taken just seven points in the following nine matches and fallen to fifth.
Their hopes of finishing in the top six now appear under threat, as even though they have six and seven-point buffers over Aberdeen and Dundee, they have played three games more and are in much worse form.
With no games to catch up on, this will be their first league outing since losing 3-0 to Celtic here at the start of the month, but they were in cup action last weekend, edging past Queen of the South thanks to Alex Gogic’s second-half strike.
