Aberdeen 1-3 Celtic – Five talking points from the away end at Pittodrie

Five talking points in the away end at Pittodrie this afternoon as Celtic defeated Aberdeen 3-1 to go back to the top of the league looking down on St Mirren and then theRangers…

1. Brendan Rodgers and his players have navigated the first test of the new season by putting a resilient Aberdeen to the sword. Buoyed on by a vibrant home support, Barry Robson’s side made a contest out of it but the clinical Celts took the spoils on a sunny day in the North East.

The Irishman took the acclaim after the game as he and his players applauded the travelling support with a few of The Celtic Star team managing to source a ticket. Rodgers was warmly received and you can imagine that if he strengthens in the transfer window, continues winning then it’ll be standard practice for Rodgers and the Celtic support to celebrate with the players at FT.

2. More goals for Matt O’Riley. Two goals in two games for the Dane proves that he’s loving life under Rodgers. Last season, O’Riley spoke about the need to add goals to his game and his late run resulted in the third (and winner) on a tricky trip to Aberdeen. O’Riley carried the ball well, he probed and tested the Dons whilst doing the ugly side of the game well.

3. David Turnbull showed flashes of what he can do in the first half before he was replaced by Reo Hatate. Despite two goals last weekend, the mercurial midfielder from Japan showed that he’s a tough man to keep out the team despite limping off with a calf injury. This means that Turnbull and Odin Thiago Holm will get a chance to stake a claim for first team football. The Norwegian was impressive when he came on not only offensively but in defence, too.

4. Maik Nawrocki proving to be a good buy. The £4.3m arrival from Legia Warsaw has seamlessly slotted into the Celtic defence in place of Carl Starfelt beside Cameron Carter-Vickers. Whilst they have conceded goals together as part of their defensive union, Rodgers will be pleased with what he’s seen from the Polish youngster.

Composed, quick and strong in the one v ones, the aggression from Nawrocki will serve Celtic well going forward. Cameron Carter-Vickers emerged from the tunnel limping but walking. His substitution resulted in Welsh coming in and the Coatbridge Bhoy was composed but the need to strengthen at the back is evident, especially with Rodgers’ desire to compete in Europe. Hopefully, CCV’s substitution was just a precaution.

5. Liam Scales is the subject of interest from today’s hosts. With Stephen Welsh being named on the bench, it looked as if the Irishman would likely be headed to Pittodrie once more. The Celtic manager likely wanted to get this game out the way as well as signing Gustaf Lagerbielke before sanctioning the move for his compatriot. Although with CCV going off injured and Kobayashi seemingly out of favour, Scales might remain in Glasgow a little longer.

PS – We started giving a Score Prediction in our article ‘Aberdeen v Celtic: Team news, match officials, KO time & where to watch‘ this morning. As well as getting the team right, our prediction was Aberdeen 1 Celtic 3…Hope some of you put a few quid on that!