Celtic win but can anyone challenge them?

Celtic opened their league campaign up with a 2-0 win over Ross County today and it took them all of four minutes to edge in front. The ease of their victory is nothing new but can anyone challenge them for the title?

In short no, they finished 17 points ahead of an Aberdeen side last season that were at some point threatening to give Scotland a title race. In the end it was a stroll as expected for Celtic and this season will be no different.

Aberdeen lets not forget had a fantastic season last campaign so it remains to be seen if they can replicate the sort of form that did take them top of the table in January. The Dons though are the best of the rest and have kept most of last season's squad together.
What let Aberdeen down last season was the head-to-head clashes with Celtic. They lost all four games which accounted for 12 of the final 17 point gap. So that is the area of focus to improve on if Aberdeen are to challenge. Excluding the head-to-head clashes Aberdeen would've finished 5 points behind. Now 5 points isn't that big a gap and certainly they have a good squad that could get five more points than last season if and its a big if, they show the same level of consistency.

A ray of hope for a title challenge might be the shift in focus from Celtic. Celtic are looking to return to the group stages of the champions league and that brings its fair share of challenges. Celtic will be facing three games a week which might make a difference particularly in the 1st half of the season. However Aberdeen are on a decent European run themselves and should they also make the group stage of the Europa League that will bring it's own challenge of more games. Celtic might have the squad to cope with domestic and European commitments but do Aberdeen have the same?

And who else? Is there anyone else capable of joining Aberdeen in operation challenge Celtic. Inverness were 3rd last season but by and large overachieved and 3rd was a fantastic achievement for the highlanders. Do they have the capacity to maintain that standard? Dundee United however underachieved but have lost their entire strikeforce from last season to Celtic so that will probably suggest it probably won't be on the cards that United will challenge. Unless their new signing Rodney Sneijder sets the world on fire.
Hearts are an interesting team. Newly promoted and with a young team and manager in place they could be the team that surprises everyone this season. Will that surprise be a title challenge its probably too much to ask but certainly are one of the stronger newly promoted sides in recent years.

Overall though its extremely unlikely that there will be a title winner outside of Celtic or indeed a challenge to their dominance, but the thought of it is intriguing.