Rodgers won’t stand for complacency as his Celtic team go into Scottish Cup final as favourites

Brendan Rodgers insists Celtic will never be drawn into taking victory over Rangers for granted.

The newly-crowned Premiership champions head into Saturday’s Scottish Cup final as bookmakers’ favourites to end the season unbeaten in five meetings with their bitter rivals.

A Celtic win would also draw the clubs level on the trophy count at 118 apiece.

With last weekend’s title celebrations now over, Rodgers has ordered his players to regain their focus and put the work heads back on.

Playing down suggestions of a Celtic stranglehold over Philippe Clement’s side, he said: ‘No, you can never have that arrogance. It’s not how we work. We have a humility in how we work, we respect every opponent we play, whether that’s Rangers, or Raith or whoever, we have to prepare for the game.

‘But we come into the game in the ideal condition. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. We’ve been on fire the last few months, playing really well.

The Celtic boss looks relaxed as he chats to his players at training

Rodgers has a quick word with James Forrest who has been recalled to Scotland squad

‘There were lots of challenges for us at the beginning of the season — playing every three or four days, when we had some really important players missing.

‘But I think over the course, as the season has built up into the pressure months, the players have been superb in how they’ve dealt with that.

‘So we arrive having won the league in a really, really good way and playing well. We come into this in good condition.’

After a testing, challenging season — when his side were eliminated from the Viaplay Cup in August — the champions claimed their third straight title by a margin of eight points.

Acknowledging that a league and cup Double would be the icing on the cake, Rodgers challenged his players to go over the line one last time after the joy of lifting the Premiership trophy.

Celtic skipper Callum McGregor will  be looking to celebrate a league and cup double

Greg Taylor and James Forrest talk tactics ahead of the Hampden showpiece

Celtic will be looking for goals from Kyogo Furuhashi against Rangers on Saturday

‘We had a celebration last weekend but it was also a work day for us,’ he added. ‘We wanted to win the game, which was brilliant and the weekend overall for Celtic was good — with the women’s team clinching the league as well.

‘But, as I said to the players at the beginning of the week: “You’ve had that relaxation, now it’s time to get focused”.

‘We have to do the work — the focus, the work and the intensity has been at the highest level. So focus is the word.’