Celtic midfielder James Forrest insists the quality of the Scottish Premiership has improved after his team’s slow start to the campaign.

The Hoops are third in the table after 16 games, but do have games in hand on their rivals. A win against Motherwell on Wednesday could take them back to the top of the table, but Rangers might stop that in their meeting with Hibernian.

Celtic have won the last seven league titles, two under Brendan Rodgers, but this year’s fight for silverware is already much tougher.

After 16 games last year they were five points clear at the top of the table but Forrest insists the quality of the league has improved.

“Last year, compared to the manager’s first year, the league improved and you can see with the league table this year it’s improved again,” said Forrest. “There’s a few teams that have done really well and deserve to be up there and I think everyone’s strengthened their squad and making it really hard.

“Teams are getting stronger. Maybe a couple of times we’ve not played to our capability and it has been shown that if we’re not at our best, teams can take points off you.

“I think that’s why every game we need to make sure we’re right at it as we know it’s difficult to go to some places and you can drop points.”

Rodgers has selection headaches ahead of the game against Motherwell but Celtic to win 1-0 remains 7.50 with the Dafabet Price Boosts.