Celtic’s victory over Hibernian on Wednesday evening brought us to the halfway point in the 2022/23 Scottish Premiership season.
The fixture at Easter Road was the Bhoys’ 19th league outing, with the Bhoys also being involved in UEFA Champions League and Viaplay Cup action.
It marks the halfway stage in the top flight of Scottish Football, following an extremely busy and unprecedented start to the campaign.
Typically by this point in the campaign, the Bhoys have reached the halfway point in competitive league action. However, it has been a slightly different season in many ways.
The main reason for the season’s schedule being so different was due to the World Cup which was played in the winter out in Qatar.
As supporters are well aware, the opening fixtures across all three competitions were crammed in between July to November, with a months-long winter break taking place recently.
Following the conclusion of the prestigious international tournament, Ange Postecoglou’s side has returned to Scottish Premiership action and continued results how they left off in early November.
And after 19 games in the league, the Hoops sit nine points clear at the top of the league, having won all but one of their domestic fixtures in 2022/23.
It is an extremely impressive feat which has been achieved by Postecoglou after around 18 months at Parkhead, building an utterly relentless Celtic team.
Not only do Celtic hold a nine-point lead at the top, but we also have a significantly better goal difference than any other team in the league.
Scoring 61 goals and conceding 15, the Bhoys’ goal difference is 20 goals better off than our closest rivals in second place.
As is now expected with Postecoglou’s side, the goals are also well-balanced across the side, with defenders, midfielders and strikers all chipping in.
So far this campaign, Kyogo Furuhashi leads the way at both Celtic and in the entire Scottish Premiership, scoring 14 goals at a rate of a goal every 77 minutes.
Impressively, Kyogo has already outscored the top goalscorer from last campaign, with Giorgos Giakoumakis and Regan Charles-Cook finishing on a tally of 13 goals.
In the 2022/23 goalscoring charts, though, the Celtic frontman is quickly followed by fellow teammates Liel Abada (7), Giakoumakis (6) and Jota (5), who are all inside the top 10.
There have already been many highlights from the first part of the league campaign, including a 9-0 win over Dundee United and 4-0 victory over Rangers.
However, I am sure Postecoglou will be hoping for even more moments to remember as we prepare to get started in the second half of the 2022/23 season.
Ange Postecoglou will be hoping for similar win rate in the second half of the campaign.
The Bhoys have been almost unstoppable on the domestic front since July, suffering just one slip-up on the road against St Mirren.
Having showcased their brilliant mentality that has seen the Hoops go on a run of 12 straight victories in the league, you would imagine Postecoglou will be keen to see his side replicate that going into the second half of the campaign.
It doesn’t get much more difficult for Celtic, who kickstart their second round of 19 games with a trip to Ibrox to take on our Glasgow rivals.
However, Postecoglou and his players have shown their credentials at this stadium before, picking up three points at our rival’s ground in March.
And after making such a fantastic start to the season, picking up 54 points from a possible 57, then the Hoops should be full of confidence.
It would certainly be the perfect way to kick start 2023 for Ange Postecoglou and his Celtic squad, who are targeting further trophy success in the league and domestic cups.
In other news, Celtic ace rounds 2022 off in style as produces response to early season critics.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
