Aberdeen defender Graeme Shinnie: There is massive belief in this team
Aberdeen defender Graeme Shinnie claims he would never have signed for the Dons if he did not believe they could topple Celtic.
The former Inverness captain quit the Highlanders in the summer for Pittodrie because he reckons Derek McInnes is building something special in the Granite City.
The Reds have won their first five games of the season and can make it a record sixth if they can see off the Hoops when they visit on Saturday lunchtime.
Victory for the Dons would justify Shinnie's decision to stay in Scotland after turning down the chance to move south.
But the 24-year-old insists he will not get carried away even if Ronny Deila's men are defeated.
He told RedTV: "There is massive belief in this team. I wouldn't have signed for Aberdeen if there wasn't belief in the team.
"Do I get the sense that this is a title-challenging club? Of course I do. I met the manager before I signed here and what he had to say and what I wanted as a player naturally came together.
"He wants us to get closer to Celtic and mount a bigger challenge.
"The belief is always there to go and get better but we can only take it a game at a time. If we can put points on the board quickly then we will see where we are when it comes to the latter stages of the league."
The Dons pushed Celtic close last season but faded down the final stretch and eventually finished 17 points behind Deila's champions.
But it could have been a different story had McInnes' men not lost their four head-to-heads with the Parkhead side.
Deila insists Celtic's visit is far too early in the season to be of real significance to the Ladbrokes Premiership title race.
The Hoops won all four meetings between the clubs last season on the way to their fourth successive title - the first under the Norwegian boss - but Deila admits the Dons have improved.
However, Deila, whose side travel north one on 16 points, one ahead of Aberdeen having played a game more, although Hearts could leapfrog both if they win against Inverness, played down the importance of the match.
"Last year we started talking about the title race in January, now we start in September," he said.
"We're going to play a lot of matches and nothing will be finished after Saturday but the team who wins that game will put themselves in a better position and get energy and confidence for the next games.
"I think Aberdeen are a better team this year than last year because they have consistency.
"They have brought in a couple of good players as well, they have kept their team and have more experience than last year.
"They have started well so it's going to be a tough game.
"We go into every game to win and that's what we want, to go to Aberdeen and get three points and that would, of course, put us in a very good position."
"But it's very early to talk about winning and losing the league."
While conceding that Aberdeen have stepped up a level from last season, Deila also believes his side have also improved.
The former Stromsgodset boss said: "Everything is going the right way, everything we've done, winning games and progressing.
"If you look at points compared to last year and goal difference compared to last year, everything is going the right way.
"I think we were a little bit lucky in the first game against Aberdeen last season when we won in the last second but the other games we deserved to win and we got better throughout the season.
"The tempo of our play got better and better and that's the strength of Aberdeen as well.
"We coped much better during the season and we've got players with legs that can hurt them and we did that and defended well."
Source: PAR
