Ronny Deila: ‘You want to win the league by as many points as you can’

Departing Celtic boss Ronny Deila wants Parkhead to remain pointless for Aberdeen when the Dons visit on Sunday.

The Norwegian has not lost to the Granite City men in Glasgow since taking over two seasons ago and indeed the Hoops have triumphed in 21 straight Ladbrokes Premiership games at home to Aberdeen since a defeat in 2004.

Derek McInnes’ side have won two of the three league meetings this season as they have chased the champions-elect but both of them were at Pittodrie.

Deila’s side won 3-1 at home in October and 4-0 and 2-1 in last season’s clashes at Celtic Park and go into the match effectively champions with a lead of nine points and 35 goals over the visitors with three matches remaining.

The Hoops manager is keen to ensure that home hex over the Dons is not broken before his tenure is concluded.

He said: “You want to win the league by as many points as you can but Aberdeen deserve credit as well as they have had a very good season.

“They have been very consistent and pushed us a lot.

“But we haven’t lost against them at Celtic Park as long as I’ve been here and we want to keep that stat.”

Deila will surely leave Parkhead at the end of the season with two successive title wins as well as a League Cup trophy triumph from last season but he expects the visitors to try to spoil the party.

He said: “It would be very strange if they don’t want to do it but we will be ready and it’s going to be a good game of football.”

Deila, who confirmed skipper Scott Brown and defender Dedryck Boyata will be out for the rest of the season with respective hamstring problems, is pondering the prospect of utilising his huge squad in the final three games.

The former Stromsgodset boss said: “We will see what we do but of course we want to win games and finish off in a good way.

“We have many good players here so we will see if we use the squad more than we have done, or not.”