'Trio of testing away trips loom as Dons look to continue remarkable start'
- Published
Aberdeen provided the perfect tonic for their Hampden humbling with an eventually convincing victory over Dundee at Pittodrie to continue this remarkable start to the Premiership season.
Their points haul of 31 out of a possible 33 is staggering. Celtic have obviously achieved it as well but only a handful of times in the champions’ history have they managed this sort of opening to a campaign, which shows you just how impressive it has been by the Dons.
There have only been a few examples of sides having won 10 of their first 11 games in a season and not going on to win the title.
That remains a tall order and some bookmakers still make Rangers second favourites behind Celtic, whose odds are anywhere between 1/12 and 1/20. It's up to the Dons players to show they can do what the likes of Leicester City, Montpellier, Bayer Leverkusen and Napoli have done over the last decade or so in their respective countries and overcome those sort of odds.
The international break allows manager Jimmy Thelin to take stock of where Aberdeen are and what lies ahead and that is a tough set of fixtures.
Three away games follow at St Mirren, Hibernian and Hearts and all are venues Aberdeen have struggled at in recent seasons. The Dons are nine league visits to Paisley without success and while they won at Easter Road late last season, that is their only victory in their last seven trips to Leith.
Their record down Gorgie Road leaves a lot to be desired with no wins there since May 2017 and, despite the travails of all three of those sides at times this season, these will be tough assignments.
Once those games are done and dusted there comes a visit to Pittodrie from Celtic in early December. If Thelin can navigate the road trips that lie ahead, what a spectacle that could be.
