2016–17 Scottish Premiership

Scottish Premiership

Season	2016–17
Matches played	81
Goals scored	224 (2.77 per match)
Top goalscorer	Scott Sinclair (9 goals)[1][2]
Biggest home win	Celtic 6–1 Kilmarnock (24 September 2016)[3][4]
Biggest away win	Kilmarnock 0–4 Aberdeen (1 October 2016)[3][4]
Highest scoring	Celtic 6–1 Kilmarnock (24 September 2016)[3][4]
Longest winning run	7 matches:[4] Celtic
Longest unbeaten run	12 matches:[4] Celtic
Longest winless run	10 matches:[4] Dundee & Ross County
Longest losing run	6 matches:[4] Dundee
Highest attendance	58,348[4] Celtic 5–1 Rangers (10 September 2016)
Lowest attendance	1,609[4] Hamilton Academical 1–0 Ross County (27 August 2016)
Total attendance	1,091,851[4]
Average attendance	12,845
← 2015–16 2017–18 → All statistics correct as of 30 November 2016.

The 2016–17 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Scottish Premiership for sponsorship reasons) will be the fourth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The season began on 6 August 2016.^[5] The fixtures were published on 17 June 2016.^[6] Celtic are the defending champions.

Twelve teams will contest the league. The teams involved are Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Hamilton Academical, Heart of Midlothian, Inverness CT, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Partick Thistle, Rangers, Ross County and St Johnstone.

Teams

The following teams have changed division since the 2015–16 season.

To Premiership

Promoted from Scottish Championship

• Rangers

From Premiership

Relegated to Scottish Championship

• Dundee United

Stadia and locations

Aberdeen	Celtic	Dundee	Hamilton Academical
Pittodrie Stadium	Celtic Park	Dens Park	New Douglas Park
Capacity: 20,866[7]	Capacity: 60,411[8]	Capacity: 11,506[9]	Capacity: 5,510[10]
Heart of Midlothian	Aberdeen Dundee Heart of Midlothian Inverness Caledonian Thistle Kilmarnock Rangers Ross County St. Johnstone Celtic Hamilton Motherwell Partick Thistle Location of teams in 2016–17 Scottish Premiership		Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Tynecastle Stadium			Caledonian Stadium
Capacity: 17,480[11]			Capacity: 7,512[12]
Kilmarnock			Motherwell
Rugby Park			Fir Park
Capacity: 17,891[13]			Capacity: 13,677[14]
Partick Thistle	Rangers	Ross County	St Johnstone
Firhill Stadium	Ibrox Stadium	Victoria Park	McDiarmid Park
Capacity: 10,102[15]	Capacity: 50,817[16]	Capacity: 6,541[17]	Capacity: 10,696[18]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Aberdeen	McInnes, DerekDerek McInnes	Jack, RyanRyan Jack	Adidas	Saltire Energy
Celtic	Rodgers, BrendanBrendan Rodgers	Brown, ScottScott Brown	New Balance	Dafabet
Dundee	Hartley, PaulPaul Hartley	McPake, JamesJames McPake	Puma	McEwan Fraser Legal
Hamilton Academical	Canning, MartinMartin Canning	Devlin, MichaelMichael Devlin	Adidas	SuperSeal (H), NetBet (A)
Heart of Midlothian	Daly, JonJon Daly (interim) Kirk, AndyAndy Kirk (interim)	Kitchen, PerryPerry Kitchen	Puma	Save the Children
Inverness CT	Foran, RichieRichie Foran	Warren, GaryGary Warren	Carbrini	McEwan Fraser Legal
Kilmarnock	Clark, LeeLee Clark	Smith, StevenSteven Smith	Nike	QTS
Motherwell	McGhee, MarkMark McGhee	Lasley, KeithKeith Lasley	Macron	Motorpoint
Partick Thistle	Archibald, AlanAlan Archibald	Osman, AbdulAbdul Osman	Joma	Kingsford Capital Management
Rangers	Warburton, MarkMark Warburton	Wallace, LeeLee Wallace	Puma	32Red
Ross County	McIntyre, JimJim McIntyre	Quinn, PaulPaul Quinn	Macron	Stanley CRC Evans Offshore
St Johnstone	Wright, TommyTommy Wright	Anderson, StevenSteven Anderson	Joma	Alan Storrar Cars

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Celtic	Deila, RonnyRonny Deila	Resigned	15 May 2016 [19]	Pre-season	Rodgers, BrendanBrendan Rodgers	20 May 2016[20]
Inverness CT	Hughes, JohnJohn Hughes	Resigned	20 May 2016[21]		Foran, RichieRichie Foran	30 May 2016[22]
Heart of Midlothian	Neilson, RobbieRobbie Neilson	Signed by MK Dons	2 December 2016[23]	2nd	John Daly Andy Kirk (joint-interims)	2 December 2016[24]

Tournament format and regulations

Basic

In the initial phase of the season, the 12 teams will play a round-robin tournament whereby each team plays each one of the other teams three times. After 33 games, the league splits into two sections of six teams, with each team playing each other in that section. The league attempts to balance the fixture list so that teams in the same section play each other twice at home and twice away, but sometimes this is impossible. A total of 228 matches will be played, with 38 matches played by each team.

League Summary

League Table

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological progress, any postponed matches are not included in the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards. For example, if a match is scheduled for matchday 13, but then postponed and played between days 16 and 17, it will be added to the standings for day 16.

Source: BBC Sport

Results

Matches 1–22

Teams play each other twice, once at home and once away.

Updated to games played on 3 December 2016.
Source: Scottish Premiership
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23–33

Teams play every other team once (either at home or away).

Source: Scottish Premiership
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 34–38

After 33 matches, the league splits into two sections of six teams each, with teams playing every other team in their section once (either at home or away). The exact matches are determined upon the league table at the time of the split.

Season Statistics

Top Scorers

As of matches played on 30 November 2016^[1][2]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Scott Sinclair	Celtic	9
2	Liam Boyce	Ross County	8
3	Moussa Dembélé	Celtic	7
4	Souleymane Coulibaly	Kilmarnock	6
	Ali Crawford	Hamilton Academical
	Louis Moult	Motherwell
	Danny Swanson	St Johnstone
	Jamie Walker	Hearts

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Reference
Liam Boyce	Ross County	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	2–3 (A)	13 August 2016	[26]
Moussa Dembélé	Celtic	Rangers	5–1 (H)	10 September 2016	[27]
Louis Moult4	Motherwell	Hamilton Academical	4–2 (H)	17 September 2016	[28]

Notes

• (H) – Home ; (A) – Away
• ⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Ref.
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Brendan Rodgers	Celtic	Liam Boyce	Ross County	[29]
September	Richie Foran	Inverness CT	Moussa Dembélé	Celtic
October	Brendan Rodgers	Celtic	Adam Barton	Partick Thistle

Premiership play-offs

The quarter-finals will be contested between the 3rd and 4th placed teams in the Scottish Championship. The winners will advance to the semi-finals to face the 2nd placed team in the Championship, and the winners of that tie will advance to the final to play-off against the 11th placed team in the Premiership, with the winners securing a place in the 2017–18 Scottish Premiership.

References

External links

• Official website