Celtic did what was required at home to St Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday and have drawn praise for the intensity of their performance.
Brendan Rodgers was a happy manager on post-match media duties after witnessing his side pick up a comfortable 3-1 victory.
Nicolas Kuhn, Kyogo Furuhashi and James Forrest were all on target in an impressive attacking performance that could have resulted in more goals on the day.
In fact, BBC Sportsound pundit Michael Stewart reckons the Bhoys could have racked up six or seven and noted that Celtic looked like a different animal today – even before they scored the opener.
Celtic “pummelled” St Johnstone
The former Hearts and Hibs man said in response to fellow pundit Pat Bonner: “He’s used the word I was thinking of myself. Pummelled. That’s what it was. It really was.
“Celtic have struggled against teams who have set up similarly at Celtic Park. All you need to do is look at last week against Livingston – it was not impressive and the defending was poor.
“Today, I think we all recognised that the intensity was there in abundance. Even before Celtic scored, there were opening stages where you were thinking ‘it could be one of those days’ because it’s felt like that this season. There have been many of them. But there was something different – they were creating and opening St Johnstone up even though they were sitting so deep.
“Kyogo’s movement was far superior to what it has been of late. He was quick, he was alive, he was electric again. If that was six or seven, I don’t think there could’ve been any complaints.”
Celtic had 74% possession against the Perth visitors, creating eight clear-cut chances from 22 shots in total.
So it’s fair to say the scoreline could have been greater, especially with some marginal offside calls and a big penalty shout. The Bhoys never looked like dropping points.
That kind of display may have been taken for granted over the last few years but after some inconsistency this term, it was very pleasing to witness.
Rodgers’ side can certainly be even more ruthless in front of goal but if the team continue to create this amount of chances week after week then no one should write off silverware yet.
Today was a good step forward. There’s plenty of work left to do this term but it seems that Celtic are up for the fight.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
