The upturn in Rangers’ results is irrefutable.
When Gio van Bronckhorst took on the task of replacing Steven Gerrard, he also took charge of a team that was in danger of tossing away a first title in 10 years and incapable of stringing a solid string of performances together.
Three straight league victories was the best run that Gerrard could muster this term before bolting over the border for Aston Villa in November.
Since then, in his first 12 undefeated games in the hotseat, van Bronckhorst has rattled off 10 wins plus draws away to Aberdeen and Lyon.
In nine top-flight matches, he has harvested 25 points from a possible 27, conceding just two goals.
The statistics alone indicate a remarkable turnaround in Rangers’ fortunes but, as ever, without telling all of the story.
They might be there to see in black and white. But the shades of grey were causing anxiety levels to rise into the red zone at Ibrox on Wednesday night as the champions came close to a second successive stumble since the winter break.
Because although his team is now better structured and more robust, this pragmatism has come at a price in terms of attacking flair.
After dropping his first two points at Pittodrie the previous midweek, van Bronckhorst was nearly reduced to watching
the last 20 minutes of an increasingly nervy stalemate with Livingston through the cracks in his fingers.
It took a moment of improvised genius from Scott Arfield to finally punch a hole in David Martindale’s iron willed defence with one deft flick of the sub’s right boot.
That the winning goal came from an assist from the overlapping Borna Barisic was also a flashback to the ‘hand-break off’ forward thrusting that made Gerrard’s side so irresistible last season.
Van Bronckhorst, then, is still searching for the right balance at a critical moment in the campaign against the backdrop of the first genuine pound for pound Premiership title fight since 2011.
No wonder he puffed out his cheeks in relief after Arfield’s intervention kept his team four points clear at the top.
Van Bronckhorst nodded and said: “It’s very crucial to win these hard games. We want to win every game no matter the circumstances.
“There are two teams with the same circumstances and we have to make sure that we are the winners in the end.
“We weren’t our usual selves on Wednesday night but you get matches like that.
“You just have to make sure you are taking the three points For me, the next game is now the most important, away against Ross County.
“We have two days to prepare so all the energy we have now will go into the three points
on Saturday.”
There’s no time to blink let alone stutter. Not with next week’s table-top showdown at Celtic Park now firmly coming into view.
The good news for van Bronckhorst is that he’ll have more strings to add to his attacking bow over the next few days in the shape of Ryan Kent, Joe Aribo and new arrival Amad Diallo.
But those added options mean he may also have to consider moving away from the more cautious approach.
On Wednesday, as at Aberdeen, van Bronckhorst deployed both Glen Kamara and James Sands as the belt and braces to his midfield.
And, as at Aberdeen, it made for a tough, uninspiring watch.
But the Gers gaffer said: “You are also looking of course at which players you have
available. We don’t have many midfield players.
“That’s why I gave Alex Lowry the chance to start. He has the kind of qualities that we have been missing in the squad. So it was very important for me to play with him.
“For Saturday, I have Joe back and Scott can play. And Alex, of course, so I have more choices.”
Young Lowry has made quite an impact in his first two senior games. But van Bronckhorst is likely to proceed with caution where this blossoming teenage talent is concerned.
He went on: “The first training session he joined the squad he was a bit nervous.
“He was making a lot of mistakes actually in things he can do well. You could see he can control the ball well, he can pass it. But at first he made mistakes.
“But after he was a little bit more settled and you saw his confidence coming back. You could see the Alex you see now.
“At times you also save his youthfulness when he should have played faster but that’s a normal process for him. I’m really pleased for him with the way he’s performing.”
