Rangers have now won back-to-back games at Ibrox against their Old Firm rivals.
BBC Sport pundit Steven Thompson has lauded Scott Arfield for his display during Rangers’ 2-0 win against Celtic, but he labelled defender Jon Flanagan as ‘stupid’ for his off-the-ball incident involving Scott Brown.
In the first half, with the Light Blues winning 1-0, left-back Flanagan appeared to elbow midfielder Brown in the face during a corner, but he was only shown a yellow card for his actions.
Later on in the game, Arfield went on to double Rangers’ lead when he pounced on a delightful through ball by Glen Kamara following a dummy from Jermain Defoe.
Speaking to Sportscene on BBC Scotland (13/05/2019 at 12:40 am), Thompson stated that Arfield was the best player on the pitch at Ibrox and Flanagan should have seen red.
“He [Arfield] has been excellent,” Thompson told Sportscene. “He made these types of runs [into the box] all day by coming in late and splitting the centre-halves. He did it time and time again. He’s got a really good relationship with Defoe up front as well, he goes and supports [him]. For me, he was the best player on the pitch.
On Flanagan incident: “The fact that he’s seen it and he’s given a yellow card for it. I can’t understand. Why has he decided to give a yellow? It’s a blatant, blatant red card and just stupid from Flanagan to do that, especially given the discipline problems Rangers have had in this fixture.”
In recent weeks, Steven Gerrard’s side have produced a number of good performances with Arfield and Defoe being their standout performers.
Not only that, Gerrard will be pleased that his team have now won back-to-back home games against their Old Firm rivals, who have already wrapped up the Scottish Premiership.
Next Sunday, Rangers take on Steve Clarke’s Kilmarnock in what is the final game of the 2018/19 Scottish Premiership season.
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