Commons impressed in Celtic's draw with Ajax
Celtic's Kris Commons wants exciting title race with Aberdeen
Kris Commons hopes leaders Aberdeen can take the Premiership race "to the wire" but remains confident his Celtic side will successfully defend the title.
The Dons beat Celtic 2-1 last week and Aberdeen moved five points clear with a midweek win over Hamilton Academical.
"They're in a rich vein of form," said Commons. "It's going to take someone like us to keep the pressure on."
"I've got full faith and confidence in this group of players that we'll be champions come the need of the season."
Commons, who has won the last four top-flight titles in Scotland with Celtic, believes the pressure of being top will present a challenge for Derek McInnes's Aberdeen.
"The expectation of winning every week will add certain pressures to them so hopefully they'll take it right to the wire, keep us interested, keep us on our toes," Commons, 32, said.
"I know we got beat at Aberdeen. They're flying high at the minute."
Aberdeen beat Celtic at Pittodrie last week
Celtic drew 2-2 with Ajax on Thursday in their opening Europa League Group A fixture, with Commons setting up both of the visitors' goals on his return to the starting line-up.
And Commons had "mixed emotions" after the game.
Goals from Nir Bitton and Mikael Lustig put Celtic 2-1 up at the break before Emilio Izaguirre's red card for two bookings gave Ajax a one-man advantage and the Dutch side levelled late on through Lasse Schone.
"I don't think there was a real threat for the [first] 75 [minutes]," said Commons.
"Their [first] goal [by Viktor Fischer] was pretty slick and good but they had lots and lots of possession in areas where we comfortable.
"Personally, I never felt our goalkeeper was getting worked so much.
"I think the sending off certainly swayed it in their favour. They could gamble with an extra striker. Obviously, that put us on the back foot. We had a lot of tired legs out there towards the end."
But Commons was "delighted" to be back in the side after missing out on starts in Celtic's previous European games this season.
"The manager called me in before the match and said, 'I need you, I need you to do what you usually do. If not scoring goals then creating goals'," added Commons.