The next few weeks will see a break for the Scottish Cup quarter-final ties and then the international break before the run-in of the pre-split fixtures. As things stand there remains a title battle, albeit with Celtic in a very commanding position and the race for third has opened up slightly over the last few match days. There is a battle for the top six and to avoid the drop, both tight and competitive currently.

It would take a brave person to predict, with a degree of certainty, the winners and losers of each battle. Many would go for Celtic to win the title and Hearts to finish third with Dundee United relegated. But the top six, European spots and the team in the Premiership play-off are much harder calls.

The popular statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight has a projected table using a methodology which takes into consideration such factors as market value of each side, play-by-play data from Opta Sports and metrics to evaluate a team's performance after the match.

So, what are the projections?

Celtic will win the league, unsurprisingly. Ange Postecoglou’s men currently hold a nine-point lead over Rangers but are predicted to win the league by 12 points, breaking the 100-point mark in the process. The Ibrox side have been given a four per cent chance to overturn the current deficit.

Hearts are projected to finish ahead of rivals Hibs and Livingston in the race for third place with St Mirren taking the final top six spot. The prediction sees Robbie Neilson’s men, who are given a 76 per cent chance of securing third, finish with a seven-point buffer.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the table there is a surprise with Dundee United and Kilmarnock finishing on 34 points with the latter being relegated on a goal difference. It would mean United would pick up 14 points from their last 12 matches, a much better points-per-game ratio than their current 0.77.

Celtic's predicted title-winning margin over Rangers, Hearts & Hibs battle and surprise relegation projection

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