Callum McGregor has admitted Aberdeen's impressive early season form hasn't surprised him, and he actually welcomes their challenge.
The Celtic captain will lead his side out against Jimmy Thelin's high-flying Dons at Hampden Park on Saturday, and he feels having competition other than Rangers can only be a positive for Scottish football.
Celtic and Aberdeen drew 2-2 at Parkhead two weeks ago, with McGregor's side surrendering a two goal half-time lead.
That gutsy comeback from Aberdeen, which has helped them keep level at the Scottish Premiership summit, displayed that they have the ability to cause the Hoops problems, just as their skipper detailed to the media ahead of the huge Premier Sports Cup semi-final clash this weekend.
"Just their whole game to be honest, it's really impressive," he commented on Aberdeen's threat. "They're together when they defend, there's not many spaces there and then they carry a threat on transition as well. They've got speed in the team, they've got good physicality in the team, so I've been really impressed by them, but it'll be another tough game for sure.
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"I think as many teams as we can get doing well in Scotland, then ultimately gives us a better product. It gives people a better product to watch and it's more competition for the team. We want everybody to be strong and fighting against each other and hopefully we can come out on top. Aberdeen will have the same intention as well. They want to win the game tomorrow and we want to win so it will be a good game."
McGregor has missed Celtic's last two league games against Motherwell and Dundee due to a minor injury, but he's back fit and raring to go for this one.
On having to watch from the sidelines over the past week, the 31-year-old said: "I'm all good and ready to go. It's been a bit of a quieter week this week, but I'm good and ready to go.
"It's not a feeling I'm used to [missing games], so you are kicking every ball on the sideline and just desperate to get back out there."
