Brendan Rodgers admits Rangers have improved and that this has heaped pressure on Celtic.

The Scottish champions drew 1-1 against Aberdeen at the weekend and the Ibrox side then cut the gap at the top of the league table to three points after their 3-0 victory over Livingston.

And while Rodgers can see improvements being made under Philippe Clement, he insists his team can only focus on themselves.

"I said at the beginning of the season, to win any league you have to earn the right, but I also think competition makes you better," he told Sky Sports.

"I spent enough years in the Premier League and see the improvements Man City could make because of the challenges they had around them and it's no different to any league.

"Competition is the catalyst in order to improve and be better. There's no doubt Rangers have done that but primarily our focus in on ourselves and improving our own performance, that's our only concentration."

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Meanwhile, Neil Lennon has defended the Celtic board after the January transfer window, questioning whether the fan banner at Pittodrie was the right course of action.

The Scottish champions drew 1-1 against Aberdeen as their lead at the top of the table was reduced to just three points after Rangers defeated Livingston.

Celtic signed Nicolas Kühn from Rapid Vienna for £3million last month and also brought Adam Idah in on loan from Norwich until the end of the season.

However, many Hoops supporters have felt that winter recruitment was poor and did not meet the expectations set out in terms of the "quality players" mentioned by manager Brendan Rodgers before the window opened.

And this led to fans producing a banner at Pittodrie which read: "Celtic board- on your heads be it".

But Lennon reckons the 50-year-old's scouting team were likely trying to look for high-value players but it was just difficult to get deals done.

Speaking to PLZ Soccer, he said: "How do we know that Celtic haven’t tried to spend £10-12million on a player?

"Or £15million? Can we attract players of that quality, of that price to Scotland? What I am saying is that I am sure they have looked around for these types of players.

"They might not be available. They might not want to come. The fact that they are out of the Champions League, it might not be as appealing as it were at the start of the season as well. 

“They have spent some money in the summer. I don’t know how many players they have brought in.

"Whether the fans think they are good enough or not is another thing.  That’s then a matter of opinion and it has nothing to do with the board’s decision to spend the money or not.

"It has worked [project signings]. Won the treble last year. It's not an exact science, you’re not going to get them all right."