Philippe Clement has come into Rangers and just "got it straight away".

That's the feeling of former Light Blues striker Jermain Defoe, who deems the Belgian manager pivotal to Rangers' improved form and is backing them to beat Celtic this weekend. 

Clement replaced Michael Beale last October and has already lifted the Viaplay Cup, with the Treble still possible. Rangers are a point behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership title race but have a huge game in hand against Dundee to come next week. While they face Heart of Midlothian at Hampden Park later this month for a Scottish Cup final place.

Defoe, who spent three seasons at Ibrox, knows Rangers have put themselves in an ideal position going into Sunday's home clash versus their Glasgow rivals and believes they can be confident of producing a positive result that will help them go on to win the league. 

Speaking to Sky Sports, the ex-England international said: "The new manager come in, the manager had some work to do, to be honest. He's been fantastic. 

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"I watched his interview, I think it was with (Kris) Boyd. He's just got it straight away, he really impressed me and I just thought okay, performances have been good, the results have been good, obviously that's the most important thing, and that's why I think the players should feel confident going into this one.

"Celtic have obviously dropped a lot of points, but still, it's a one-off game. I think sometimes in these kind of games form goes out the window. Both teams if they are playing well, or the previous games if they've not played well, form goes out the window. 

"It's a one-off game, it means so much to everyone involved and like I said, I'm looking forward to it because you have to be confident being at Ibrox." 

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He went on: "The Old Firm, it's the best football match in the world in my opinion at Ibrox.

"It's all to play for really, but I'm confident that the boys can go on and win the league. It would be fantastic for everyone involved in the football club. 

"But I'm looking forward to watching the game, I might even go, so I think at Ibrox you have to be confident. It's a special stadium, it's a special place to play football, it's going to be rocking, no Celtic fans, so you have to take advantage of that, and I think the boys will do that."