Bhoys underline their Old Firm dominance with Invincible touch
TIME alone will tell if Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic finish the campaign as Treble- winning Invincibles.
Only by staying undefeated through their last four Premiership fixtures and the Scottish Cup Final will they be able to secure that lasting piece of fame.
For certain, though, this will always be remembered as a year when they were a class apart from their rivals.
In recording this, their biggest win over Rangers at Ibrox since a 4- 0 victory 119 years ago, they made it five wins, one draw and no losses in this season’s Old Firm derbies.
Make no mistake, this was as comprehensive as the score line suggests. More so, even. Celtic tore out of the traps and were dominant from the opening seconds.
Faced with an opponent set up in a new- look diamond formation, they went wide and sparkled on the flanks, cutting inside again and again with slick diagonal moves.
It was one such passage of play that earned them the breakthrough just seven minutes in.
Myles Beerman rashly opted to foul Patrick Roberts inside the box, a foolish decision given the winger was heading out of the box.
As at Hampden six days earlier, Scott Sinclair stepped up to take the spot kick.
Ibrox held its breath as Rangers keeper Wes Foderingham bounced on his goalline but in the end it was no contest with the striker confidently shooting low into the corner of the net.
Sinclair is one of the favourites to win the Player of the Year awards given the impact he has made since moving north of the border last summer.
What he did next, though, whirling away to celebrate in front of the Rangers support was no credit to him.
Several of his teammates joined in and the combined effect was provocative: within seconds, stewards and the players themselves were trying to restrain a pitch
invader. However, when they stuck to the football, Celtic were unstoppable with Leigh Griffiths unleashing a screamer from a tight angle outside the box.
Things were getting fraught and when Jozo Simunovic clattered into a tackle through the back of Kenny Miller, winning the ball but taking the man in the process, the Rangers support were furious.
Referee John Beaton seemed determined to take a softly, softly approach and allowed Miller and Scott Brown to trade fouls without sanction.
More mystifying, too, was the fact no action was taken after Clint Hill appeared to push Mikael Lustig to the ground in the melee which broke out as the two sides argued the toss about Josh Windass’s hack on Sinclair.
With Rangers overrun in the first half something had to change and it was no surprise to see Pedro Caixinha, who had earlier been seen urging his players to shut down their opponents, bring on midfielder Andy Halliday in place of the largely ineffective striker Joe Dodoo.
The change in personnel, however, brought no change in the flow of the game.
Celtic started at a clatter and got their third when Callum McGregor, teed up by the irrepressible Roberts, caught Foderingham out with a shot through the legs of full-back James Tavernier.
It was time for another switch. Off went Emerson Hyndman, replaced by Joe Garner.
Again, it prompted a goal – again, for Celtic.
Griffiths swung in a deep cross from the right and Dedryck Boyata rose highest to power a header down and into the net.
Only in the final quarter, at a time when Celtic were giving cameo turns to the likes of James Forrest and Tom Rogic, did Rangers grab a goal.
And fittingly it was Miller, whose efforts over the season have just been rewarded with a new one-year contract, who grabbed the consolation strike.
The 36-year-old burst through the Hoops defence to beat Craig Gordon.
But Rangers didn’t even get the last word, with Lustig slaloming his way into the box to fire home a fifth and underline the visitors’ superiority in the most emphatic fashion possible.