As expected, the match provided what could euphemistically be called ‘a clash of styles’ or, to be more brutal, a football team playing against a rugby team.
From kick off Rangers stroked the ball all around the park for 80 seconds before Celtic even got a touch of it and some of their play at times brought gasps of appreciation from the home crowd.
But, despite all their early possession and neat passing, the Light Blues struggled to carve out many chances with Magnus Hedman rarely troubled in what was, in Old Firm terms, quite a tame affair.
With Rangers playing effectively four men up front against a Celtic side sporting a makeshift back four you would have expected the home side to be raining shots in on goal but poor service from the two wide men, Peter Lovenkrands and Nuno Capucho, kept opportunities to a minimum.
At times Rangers seemed to want to take one pass too many and there was little spontaneity up front.
On his Old Firm debut, Emerson was influential in the heart of the midfield and he created Rangers’ best chance of the opening period when he swapped passes with Michael Mols before firing in a fierce shot that was deflected wide for a corner.
The busiest Rangers player in the first half, however, was not an attacker but Stefan Klos, with the German goalkeeper having to make two outstanding saves to keep the Rangers goal intact.
After 10 minutes he parried well from Alan Thompson’s shot before swooping to palm away John Hartson’s low netbound effort just before the break.
The keeper was finally beaten, however, early in the second half when Celtic went in front just 15 seconds after the re-start.
With the Rangers defence re-adjusting after Mo Ross had replaced Craig Moore at the break, it was Hartson who latched onto Henrik Larsson’s pass to shoot past Klos with the aid of a heavy deflection off Zurab Khizanishvili.
Alex McLeish finally lost patience with Capucho just six minutes after the break, with Egil Ostenstad handed the responsibility of dragging Rangers back into the game.
A couple of scrappy shots on target from Shota Arveladze did not have Hedman too troubled but at least the Light Blues were moving in the right direction.
Celtic were still dangerous on the counter attack and when Stilian Petrov’s cross was punched out by Klos only a desperate lunge from Henning Berg denied Larsson a tap-in for goal number two.
The keeper was called into action again after 77 minutes when he clawed the ball away from Petrov’s feet when it looked like the Bulgarian was trying to walk it into the net.
Rangers had other half-chances to steal a point – most notably when Stan Varga headed over his own crossbar – but in the end they ran out of ideas and Celtic held on to take all three points.
RANGERS (4-4-2): 1 Klos; 15 Khizanishvili, 25 Berg 3 Moore (Ross 46), 18 Ball; 20 Capucho (Ostenstad 51), 4 Emerson 23 Arteta, 26 Lovenkrands; 7 Arveladze, 10 Mols
Subs not used: McGregor, Nerlinger, Hughes
Booked: Khizanishvili (45)
CELTIC (4-4-2): 21 Hedman; 17 Agathe, 23 Varga, 9 Sutton, 4 McNamara; 43 Miller, 19 Petrov, 18 Lennon, 8 Thompson (Gray 24); 7 Larsson, 10 Hartson
Subs not used: Douglas, Sylla, Maloney, Kennedy
Booked: None
Man of the Match: Stefan Klos