The Light Blues took a while to find their groove in the contest, but they were in irresistible goalscoring form once they did as goals from Vaclav Cerny, Cyriel Dessers, Hamza Igamane and Jefte secured a first home triumph since February.
Barry Ferguson named an unchanged side for the visit of the Dons, which was a reflection that the Head Coach was content with large chunks of last weekend’s performance.
Although Aberdeen knew coming into the game that they were very much in the mix for third place, the opening exchanges had a distinct end-of-season feeling as both sides sussed each other out.
Indeed, Rangers settled into the game quicker than their north-east counterparts, piecing together some slick passing moves which only lacked moments of decisiveness in the attacking third to provide the exclamation point.
However, it took until beyond the 20th minute for the Gers to fashion their first moment of quality as a patient move allowed Mohamed Diomande to feed a pass into Cyriel Dessers darting across towards the near post, but the angle was always too acute for the Nigerian to divert the ball goalwards.
He was left with his head in his hands, though, just five minutes later. A wicked delivery from James Tavernier was on the money for the forward, but he contrived to spurn his header wide despite finding himself in acres of space inside the danger area.
That proved the cue for the visitors to attack in numbers for the first time on the afternoon as Topi Keskinen sprung the offside trap and had only Liam Kelly to beat, although the Aberdeen wide man’s curling effort was tame and straight into the grateful arms of the Gers goalkeeper.
Leighton Clarkson attempted his luck from a free-kick soon after, before the Aberdeen midfielder worked back effectively to thwart Vaclav Cerny as the Czech looked to shift the ball onto his favoured left side following a clever slide rule pass from Nico Raskin.
Cerny wasn’t to be dissuaded five minutes shy of the interval when he unleashed from 25 yards on the right-hand side, but the winger’s effort was driven straight down the throat of Dimitar Mitov.
Another rasping Tavernier delivery was almost turned home by Dessers from close-range, before the Nigerian – certainly at the heart of the action in the opening period – thought he had finally got his rewards on the stroke of half-time.
It was a simple pass from Connor Barron through the heart of the Aberdeen defence which landed at the feet of Dessers who, in similar fashion to seven days ago, showed tremendous strength to hold off his marker and sweep a delightful finish into the bottom corner on his left side.
VAR, however, adjudged the Nigerian to have strayed offside in receiving the pass and the celebrations inside Ibrox were swiftly curbed.
The half-time pause ushered in a change of personnel for the hosts as Hamza Igamane replaced Nedim Bajrami.
Yet it was the Dons who built some early momentum following the restart. Rangers were grateful to the woodwork when Keskinen fired goalwards from a neat Clarkson pass as Jimmy Thelin reshuffled his own deck with the introductions of Kevin Nisbet and Pape Habib Gueye.
John Souttar then rose highest from a deep corner delivery from Tavernier, but he could only nod off target among a pack of Aberdeen bodies.
However, the moment of quality that Rangers had been searching for arrived just nine minutes after the interval, manufactured by a familiar midfield source this season.
Indeed, Raskin had the freedom of the city when he picked up the ball in midfield, lifting his head and poking a through pass into Cerny, celebrating his 50th appearance for the club, who exploited a mix-up in the visitors’ defensive ranks before staring down the onrushing Mitov and curling a delightful outside-of-the-boot finish beyond the Aberdeen stopper.
And one quickly became two for Ferguson’s men just six minutes later. Again, Raskin was the creative source, darting into a position on the left-hand side to receive a pass from Cerny before leaving Kristers Tobers in his wake with a wicked chop and laying the ball on the plate for Dessers to tap home from two yards out.
It was the Belgian’s 10th assist in a coming-of-age campaign.
Jefte was then erratic in his finishing when presented with an opportunity on the edge of the penalty area before, down the opposite end, Dante Polvara blasted over at the far post in space from a corner for the away side.
The stage was set for substitute Igamane to underline his precocious talent when Aberdeen failed to clear their lines and the Moroccan unleashed an unstoppable volley from 20 yards out which Mitov was unable to keep out despite being at full stretch.
And, with virtually the last action of the game, a fourth goal arrived to cap off the outstanding second half display when a thunderous strike from Cerny diverted into the Aberdeen net off an unsuspecting Jefte.
RANGERS: Kelly, Tavernier, Souttar, Balogun (Kasanwirjo, 78), Jefte, Barron, Raskin (Lawrence, 78), Diomande (Rice, 70), Cerny, Bajrami (Igamane, 45), Dessers (Danilo, 78)
Subs not used: Butland, Propper, Cortes, Curtis
ABERDEEN: Mitov, Devlin (Jensen, 64), Shinnie, Knoester, McGrath, Polvara (Morris, 78), Clarkson, Dabbagh (Gueye, 45), Okkels (Nisbert, 45), Tobers (Milne, 64), Keskinen
Subs not used: Doohan, MacKenzie, Palaversa, Ambrose
REFEREE: David Dickinson