Kris Commons has branded Rangers' form "awful" and reckons history may be repeating itself at Ibrox.
Despite a stunning victory over Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League, the reigning champions have dropped 11 Premiership points since the New Year.
On Sunday, they failed to capitalise on Celtic drawing with Hibs as Motherwell came from two goals down to take a point from Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side, leaving them three adrift of their city rivals.
Rangers previously suffered dramatic title race collapses under Steven Gerrard and former Celtic star Commons suspects it could be happening again.
He wrote in the Daily Mail: "For Giovanni van Bronckhorst, the numbers since the winter break do not make for kind reading. In fact, they are awful.
"Since the Premiership returned in January, Rangers have now played eight games in the league, winning on only three occasions.
"They have now dropped 11 points in those eight games, blowing a six-point lead over Celtic at the turn of the year to now trail their rivals by three points.
"OK, so they got away with it yesterday in the sense that they didn't lose any more ground. Celtic were poor against Hibs and didn't deserve to win.
"Ange Postecoglou's side have got their own issues to deal with after a painful European exit at the hands of Norwegians Bodo/Glimt.
"But, for me, it's Rangers who are the main talking point just now. For all their progress in Europe, the wheels are falling off domestically.
"They are spilling points at an alarming rate and this run of form simply is not sustainable if they are to maintain a title challenge against Celtic.
"They have been here before. During Steven Gerrard's first two seasons, you could almost set your watch by how they would fall apart as soon as we got to the turn of the year.
"That now looks like it's happening again. This has to be a huge concern for Van Bronckhorst. When your rivals drop points in an early kick-off, you have to capitalise. No excuses."
Commons reckons Rangers' progress in Europe could make domestic success even more difficult, with their schedule set to remain packed.
They next meet Ange Postecoglou's league leaders on April 3 but Commons claims Celtic could already be "out of sight" by then.
He continued: "Van Bronckhorst needs to stop the slide, which won't be easy given their continued progress in Europe. That could stretch the squad to its limit to keep on going Thursday-Sunday, Thursday- Sunday. The blessing for Celtic is that they no longer have that problem.
"They can devote 100 per cent of their focus and energy into winning a league title from now until the end of the season.
"Rangers will, of course, argue that they will do the same. But the way in which they've spilled points after two huge results against Dortmund suggests a problem with their mentality.
"It's something they need to address as soon as possible. If they don't, then Celtic might well be out of sight by the time they visit Ibrox for the next Old Firm match on April 3."
