Philippe Clement accused Celtic counterpart Brendan Rodgers of being “not respectful” ahead of next week’s Old Firm derby after Rangers beat Kilmarnock to narrow the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership to three points.

Rodgers had suggested “next Saturday, we can have a bit of fun” at Celtic Park following his side’s 3-0 win over Heart of Midlothian the previous day.

“It’s not really respectful towards my team,” Clement responded. “I will never say things like that about an opponent.”

However, Rangers’ manager added: “I heard yesterday that they are going to have fun. We’re going to have fun also.”

It looked like a shock result could be on the cards that would have given Celtic the chance to retain the title against their city rivals next weekend when Kilmarnock took an early lead through a James Tavernier own-goal.

Rangers’ captain then had a penalty saved, but with Kilmarnock defender Joe Wright sent off for the hand ball that caused the spot kick, Clement’s side ended a frenetic game at Ibrox with comfortable win.

Fabio Silva scored on the brink of half-time to level, Ben Davies’ rebound put them ahead, before Tom Lawrence and John Souttar added extras to wrap the game up.

“I stepped into the building six months ago when we were seven points behind,” Clement said. “It’s now three. With a victory next week, it can be zero.

“We need to do what we did in the first two games against Celtic but be more decisive in the moment. Twice, we were close to a result – even at Celtic Park with 10 men. We have all the quality to win.”