Scottish Premiership: title race, relegation battle and a wide-open top six after first 11 games
After every Scottish Premiership side has now faced one another once, the early table points to an Old Firm title pace, a deepening Kilmarnock defensive worry and a tightly bunched fight for the top six.
Every Scottish Premiership club has now faced each other once, with Wednesday's full card completing the first 11 matches of the 38-game season. Managers continue to stress how early it is, but the table at this stage has been instructive in the past: in two of the last three seasons, the sides in the top six at this point stayed there until May.
Hearts sit third after a summer rebuild under Wouter Vrancken, whose "organised chaos" style has produced the second-highest goal tally behind Celtic, and they remain unbeaten at Tynecastle in the league since April 2025. But Wednesday's 2-2 home draw with Rangers exposed their injury-hit squad late on, and a poor away record that includes a 7-1 defeat at Celtic Park leaves them closer to fourth-placed Dundee than to the top two.
Celtic and Rangers lead most key performance metrics, including expected goals for and against, shots on target and chances created, and are the only sides conceding fewer than a goal per game on average. Despite doubts among both sets of supporters, Celtic are on course for more than 90 points after winning the title with 82 last season, the lowest total since 2017-18.
Kilmarnock are bottom, level on points with Hibernian and one behind Motherwell, yet bookmakers make them favourites for automatic relegation. Neil McCann's side have conceded 26 goals, the most at this stage since Dundee in 2018-19, and have scored the joint-fewest. In the last 10 seasons only twice has the worst defensive record avoided finishing bottom, and McCann has asked fans for patience.
Only six points separate Dundee in fourth from Aberdeen in ninth, with the bottom three a good run from top-half contention. Expected-points data suggests Hibernian and Motherwell have underperformed most, while Falkirk and Dundee have exceeded forecasts; the gap between those groups is largely chance conversion, with Hibs and Motherwell in the bottom three for shot conversion and Falkirk and Dundee in the top four.
Image: SNS / BBC Sport
