Celtic have ended the Scottish Premiership weekend seven points clear of second-placed Rangers after a comfortable 4-1 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle.
Goals from Matt O’Riley, Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi had the Bhoys cruising before Lawrence Shankland pulled one back. Tomoki Iwata then rounded off the scoring with a late strike that again left the home sides upset.
It was a superb performance, one of the best since Brendan Rodgers’ return. The signs of improvement in the team are clear to see. But what are the big talking points coming out of the match?
Matt O’Riley shows his worth for Celtic
In the closing days of the summer transfer window, Celtic reportedly turned down a £10m offer from Leeds United for Matt O’Riley’s services. That’s looking like an inspired decision.
Today’s performance from the Danish-declared midfielder was further vindication, with his goal to open the scoring particularly wonderful. He instinctively finished on the volley from Luis Palma’s excellent dinked pass, having made a run that completely bamboozled the Hearts defence.
More than that though he was the connecting force in the Celtic midfield, spraying aesthetically pleasing passes around. He was involved in the build-up to two other goals on the day. Hearts really struggled to cope with him.
He’s just a brilliant footballer to watch and, in this form, the Bhoys are truly lucky to have him around. Thankfully he’s just signed a new long-term contract.
Kyogo loves breaking Hearts
Kyogo Furuhashi has now scored in eight consecutive matches against Hearts. He absolutely loves a goal against them. He’s only played against them nine times, with the other appearance being an 11-minute cameo off the bench on his debut.
The Japanese forward is keeping pace with O’Riley as the club’s top scorer this season, with both of them now on six goals. You wouldn’t bet against him going well beyond the 20 mark again this term and perhaps even above 30 for the second consecutive season.
He has another big test ahead against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night, but after getting some second-half rest today, he is perfectly primed to show he can take his skills to a higher level.
Brendan Rodgers’ settled team
This is now comfortably the best eleven Rodgers has available to him at the moment. It was an unchanged side from the one that beat Kilmarnock prior to the international break and once again the team were impressive.
There could be an argument for Maik Nawrocki’s inclusion moving forward but Liam Scales was again impressive today and, right now, you would say that is the only real question mark.
With injury returns and new players warming up, Rodgers now has a settled eleven that should start together for the majority of upcoming matches. It’s not a surprise we are now seeing more consistent form with it. It’s onwards and upwards from here.
In other news, The day Sir Bobby Charlton played and scored for Celtic as legend passes away.
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