Youssouf Mulumbu made his second start for Celtic on Thursday

Celtic will show they are still the best team in Scotland by beating their two challengers from Edinburgh, says midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu.

The champions have had their worst start to a league campaign for 20 years and lie fifth, six points adrift.

"Once we play against Hearts and Hibs, once we beat them, we will be back at the top," midfielder Mulumbu said.

"We are Celtic and the quality we have in the dressing-room, no other team has it in Scotland."

Brendan Rodgers' side travel to Perth to face St Johnstone on Sunday and then host second-top Hibs on 20 October.

Celtic take on Hearts, currently leading the Premiership by five points, in the Scottish League Cup semi-final eight days later before Craig Levein brings his team to Glasgow on league duty on 3 November.

Mulumbu says the Celtic players are not worried about their league position because he "knows we'll soon be back at the top of the table".

The 31-year-old, who joined Celtic this summer from Kilmarnock, suffered disappointment in his second start for Rodgers' side as they went down 3-1 to RB Salzburg in Thursday's 3-1 Europa League defeat.

However, he thinks they simply need to start "fixing the things that are going wrong".

"In every team, there are ups and downs and we just need to get the confidence back and fix the detail," he said. "It's important to be clinical in every position on the pitch."

Rodgers says Sunday's game against St Johnstone is a chance to put the disappointment of their Europa League defeat behind them before thinking about their defeat by the Austrians.

Celtic have won eight and drawn two of the domestic games they have played immediately after European defeats under Rodgers.

"We'll analyse the game and, when we go to play them again, we hope we can be better, but I never dwell on it too much," the Celtic manager said. "You can't afford to.

"You just try and make sure the players are at their best in terms of mindset and confidence.

"But we'll analyse and use that as a lever to move on."