Celtic were dealt a blow in their quest to win the Premiership title by suffering a deserved defeat to Hibernian on Sunday.
Martin O’Neill’s side have been producing many late, late shows in recent matches, but this time they got a taste of their own medicine when Kai Andrews fired in the winner in the 87th minute.
67 Hail Hail will take a look at the five talking points from the match, including Auston Trusty’s red card, Junior Adamu not even coming off the bench, Benjamin Nygren’s goalscoring prowess, Kasper Schmeichel keeping his place and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s quality.
- READ MORE: James McFadden explains that Reo Hatate’s body language is an issue for Martin O’Neill at Celtic
Rate Celtic’s performance against Hibernian out of ten…
What would be your message to the Celtic players?
Martin O’Neill won’t budge with Kasper Schmeichel
Before a ball was kicked, everyone’s eyes were focused on who O’Neill was going to start in between the sticks following Celtic’s defeat to VfB Stuttgart in the Europa League on Thursday night.
O’Neill stuck with Schmeichel, and it’s pretty clear that, whatever happens from now until the end of the season, he will remain the number one because the man in charge isn’t going to budge.
In truth, against Hibs, Schmeichel did keep the Hoops in the game at 1-0, before Nygren’s equaliser, and he wasn’t at fault for the overall defeat.
Sinisalo makes the bench as Kasper Schmeichel keeps his place?
Is this the right call? Let us know in the comments.
Benjamin Nygren has been Celtic’s best signing this season
There has been a lot of talk around Celtic’s transfer business and how poorly the powers that be have recruited. It’s a reason why fans are protesting.
But not many can argue against Nygren being Celtic’s best signing this summer, and he proved it by scoring at such a crucial stage of the game, just before half-time, to level the scores.
Unfortunately, Nygren doesn’t have the midfield quality around him to make him stand out even further because it takes away this very good knack he has of making brilliant runs into the box and scoring goals.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be quality when match fit
Oxlade-Chamberlain was handed his first start by O’Neill, and you can tell that he is a level above many of the players on the pitch.
There are positive signs from Celtic’s January capture, and now it’s all about getting him match-fit.
If Oxlade-Chamberlain continues down this current road, there is no reason why he shouldn’t earn himself a bigger and longer contract.
He was replaced after an hour, before the chaos post-Trusty’s red card changed the course of the match and the result.
Time to step up, Benjamin Arthur, as Auston Trusty has no Celtic future
Trusty’s red card opened the door for Benjamin Arthur to take to the field for the first time since joining from Brentford in January.
With Trusty now banned, it means Celtic are looking for another centre-back to start alongside Liam Scales away at Rangers next week.
Unless O’Neill opts for Dane Murray, this is Arthur’s chance to show the Celtic Park faithful what he is all about because he might now start that pressure-cooker of a fixture.
Does Benjamin Arthur have enough quality to make an impact for Celtic?
Worrying signs for Junior Adamu
It was an amazing debut for Adamu against Dundee in the Scottish Cup, but since then, it has been rather disappointing.
Not only was Adamu hooked off against Kilmarnock last week, but, for the second game running, he didn’t come off the bench – against VfB Stuttgart and Hibernian.
Even before Trusty’s red card, O’Neill had the chance to bring him on, but he opted against it, and it’s a very worrying sign for the new kid on the block.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
