Celtic skipper Scott Brown insists the Scottish champions will bounce back from their derby defeat but says they need to figure out a way to outplay Rangers.

A 2-1 home defeat to their city rivals leaves Celtic with just a two point lead at the top of the table, and Rangers have a game in hand.

Reflecting on the defeat that opened up the title race, Brown noted that his side had lost at the same point last season before going on the win the league, though he acknowledged that Celtic had now been outperformed by Rangers for two games running.

"For us, it's always tough to take a defeat," he said. "We're in the same situation we were in last year when we lost the game at Ibrox.

"It wasn't our best performance today, we know that, but the main thing is that we're still top of the league and we've had a great run so far.

"Now, similar to last year, we have to make sure we bounce back after going to Dubai and having a good pre-season, coming back here fitter and stronger.

"Rangers played quite well. They closed us down and we didn't play as well as we possibly could have.

"We need to learn now, because that's two games in a row now where they've probably outplayed us.

"It's all about how we come back now."

The Celtic captain said that he still felt the team were on track for further success but that they had to devise a game plan to come out on top in the head to head matches.

"The main thing was that we won the League Cup final, we're still top of the league," he said. "They've got a game in hand, but we're certainly not in too bad a place.

"It's the performances against Rangers that we need to make sure we improve on.

"For us, we know what we need to do and what we need to improve on.

"We'll have a few days off before meeting up in Dubai and we'll figure out how we're going to play against Rangers the next time. We'll bounce back."