A five-star filleting

PREMIERSHIP Celtic

CELTIC fans will happily welcome Rangers back into the top division if every encounter between the teams is going to turn out like this. Even those who in the build-up had tried to play down the significance of the fixture – insisting until they were almost hoarse that these games no longer mattered as “Rangers died” – had long abandoned those principles come full time. Brendan Rodgers’ side had just massacred their biggest rivals in the first league meeting between the sides in more than four years.

Legal and financial arguments temporarily put to one side, Parkhead rocked from the purely visceral joy of watching one’s greatest adversaries slain in such convincing fashion.

There was a spell early in the second half when Rangers, having drawn to within a goal just before half-time, posed their first real sustained threat but that aside, Celtic were utterly dominant. By the end they had run up five goals, a result and performance that surely puts to an end any notion that they will have a serious challenger this season. After just four matches, they are now four points clear of Rangers having played a game fewer. A giddy home support, watching goal after goal rain in for their team, could not help proclaim the fabled row was in their sights.

By the end, they were hailing a new hero. Not so long ago the prospect of Leigh Griffiths missing any game would have induced an outbreak of hives among the Celtic support but they have no such worries these days. With Griffiths failing to recover from the hamstring injury that kept him out of Scotland’s win in Malta, the call came for Moussa Dembele to lead the line and he did not disappoint.

An impressive all-round display included scoring the first league hat-trick in this fixture since Stevie Chalmers did so more than 50 years ago. It was the perfect trio too – header, right foot and then left – while he also created an assist for Scott Sinclair for Celtic’s third. When substitute Stuart Armstrong rammed in a fifth Celtic goal in injury time, the biggest surprise was that Dembele had not been involved in either its build-up or execution.

The former Fulham man had done more than enough by then, his prospects helped somewhat by the persistent poverty of Rangers’ defending. His first goal – after a sluggish 30 minutes that Celtic 10-in-a- had dominated without creating a great deal – was set up by a Sinclair corner, the forward peeling away from his marker to climb above Rob Kiernan to thump a header beyond the flailing Wes Foderingham.

Little went right, in fact, for Kiernan during his 72 minutes on the pitch. His next move would be to gift possession out of defence straight to Nir Bitton, who in turn picked out Dembele with a laser-accurate pass. The 20-yearold anticipated the sliding tackle by Philippe Senderos, stepping inside the Swiss before curling a shot beyond the goalkeeper with the outside of his right-boot.

He completed his hat-trick – the first of his professional career – after 83 minutes. Again it served as a showcase for his technique and talent as he cushioned a Mikael Lustig cross with his right foot before sending in a shot with his left. They were his first three league goals as a Celtic player – taking him to seven for the season – and every one was cheered more heartily than the one that preceded it.

There was an act of class about his involvement in Sinclair’s goal too after 61 minutes, a third for Celtic that extinguished any hope Rangers had of claiming anything from the game. Moving one way, his reverse ball bisected Rangers’ central defenders and, more importantly, sprung their offside trap. Sinclair was able to take it first time and sweep it into the net.

Armstrong’s goal in injury time – after good work by Sinclair and Kieran Tierney – put the tin lid on a day when nothing really went Rangers’ way. Two goals down, they had given themselves a sliver of a chance when Joe Garner converted Kenny Miller’s clever header from right underneath the posts seconds before half-time, but it would prove something of false dawn. After soaking up some early Rangers pressure, Celtic powered past them to victory.

Rangers’ cause was not helped by the red card shown to Senderos on his debut 15 minutes from time for a second booking, the latter for a deliberate and daft handball. He was not the only one dismissed early, Rangers assistant manager Davie Weir sent to the stand for arguing with the fourth official. For all the criticism and opprobrium Willie Collum tends to receive for his handling of big occasions, there was little wrong with the ref’s performance here. The same could not be said for Rangers. This was Celtic and Dembele’s day.

Legal and financial arguments put to one side, Parkhead rocked from purely visceral joy