Dundee United manager Jackie McNamara believes his table-toppers are capable of spoiling the Parkhead party.
The Tangerines will be the guests at the Celtic championship celebrations on Saturday, with the Hoops unfurling the Scottish Premiership flag on what will be the first home game for new manager Ronny Deila.
However, McNamara’s men are desperate to wipe the smiles off the faces of the home fans when the action starts in the day’s early kick-off.
Not only do they want to banish memories of the Scottish Cup defeat to St Johnstone at the same stadium in May, United would also love to claim their first success over the Celts at the venue since Boxing Day 1992.
They came within a whisker of ending the hoodoo last November when Stuart Armstrong opened the scoring but Brian Graham missed an open goal for United before Charlie Mulgrew levelled for the Hoops in stoppage-time.
Having already hammered Aberdeen on the opening day at Pittodrie and followed that up with a 1-0 victory over Motherwell on Wednesday night to sit proudly atop the league, confidence will be coursing through the Tangerines when they take the field for their lunchtime clash.
McNamara said: “Celtic will come and attack us so it’s important we work hard as a team and try to cause them problems in return. I think we have the players to do that.
“I thought we were unfortunate last year when we drew 1-1 and we had a chance to go 2-0 in front.
“The expectations are on Celtic to perform and they will be unfurling the flag as well.
“This is their first home game back at Parkhead under their new manager and it will obviously be difficult for us because it always is through there.
“There is expectation at Celtic from day one and I think Ronny will know that by now.
“After the Champions League games, he will know what to expect. He will know how many people follow them and what they demand.
“My only interest, however, is in United and going there to try and keep up the good start we have made to this new season. We are going to go there and try to spoil it for them.”
Asked about United’s terrible record at Celtic Park stretching back to the day Duncan Ferguson grabbed the winner, McNamara replied: “Of course, records are there to be broken and they are broken all the time.
“Is it going to be now or the next time we go there?
“It will happen. It is inevitable and we just have to go there and do our best and hopefully we can do it.
“There are always stats in football but, to be honest, we should have won there last year. We had a chance to do so but that’s football.”
The United boss who is a look ahead rather than back kind of guy played down the fact that it will be the club’s first trip back to Parkhead since losing to Saints in the final.
He said: “That will have no bearing at all. It’s gone and it would be the same if we had won the cup. I said that at the start of the season and basically that it’s forgotten about.
“It’s history as far as we’re concerned. Yes, there was disappointment and you get that in football and there will be some more along the way. But we will learn from that and come back stronger.”
There have been two different sides to the Tangerines in the first couple of fixtures.
Against the Dons they sat back, allowed their solid defence to soak up pressure and attacked with pace and precision.
In midweek against Well they had to take the game to the opposition but not panic while launching attack after attack in the hope of breaking down the defence.
That patience paid off in spectacular style when substitute Mario Bilate banged home a brilliant winning goal with just seven minutes remaining.
For the Hoops game, a return to the Pittodrie plan appears likely.
McNamara said: “It was a great result against Motherwell, a bit different from the game against Aberdeen on the Sunday.
“I thought we had to be patient and we kept going in the second half. It took a fantastic strike from Mario to win it for us.
“So we have played two different games one was counter-attack against Aberdeen and for the other one against Motherwell we had to be patient.
“It shows we can adapt and we had to change the system a little bit as well throughout the 90 minutes.”