With the very poor record that Aberdeen had against Celtic last season, one would have thought that Derek McInnes might have come up with some new system or innovative tactics for this one.
Right from the first whistle, though, Celtic looked comfortable and you cannot allow the team at the head of the table to feel like that…
Certainly, the Dons had a couple of ‘nearly’ chances early on but after the opening goal, they were just not at the races for the rest of the first half and I should imagine that all their players – and management staff – would have been happy to hear the whistle for half-time.
Unfortunately for Aberdeen, things continued much the same at the start of the second half.
What I found difficult to understand, though, was that whenever the home team did open up play a bit, the Celtic defence looked far from comfortable.
Frankly, though, the Dons lacked the pace to really threaten and the only danger looked as though it might come from a free-kick or a corner.
The loss of Lustig might have caused some problems in the final 24 minutes for Celtic but Kieran Tierney’s goal plus Aberdeen also going down to 10 men took any heat off.
And as the match came to an end, the Dons were still trying – ineffectively – to pressurize the Celtic defence.
On the evidence of Sunday’s match, any challenge to Celtic’s charge to another league title will not be coming from Aberdeen.
Jim Craig
NEW – David Low on The Celtic Star Podcast: A Celtic State Of Mind.
The Celtic Star Podcast: A Celtic State of Mind presents its 38th instalment of insightful discussion around the culture of Celtic Football Club, the city of Glasgow, and fans of the reigning treble-winning Scottish champions.
This week, Paul John Dykes and Kevin Graham are joined by one of the main players in the 1994 takeover of the club by Fergus McCann.
David Low – a Celtic-supporting financial analyst – realised that his club were in deep trouble in the late 1980s, around about the same time that Fergus McCann did. Eventually in the early 1990s, David and Fergus became part of a rebel group who would eventually topple the ‘biscuit tin’ regime.
David explains this incredible journey indepth, and casts doubt on some of the theories that have arisen over the last 25 years reagrding Celtic’s near death experience.
A Celtic State of Mind has gone from strength-to-strength over the last few months, and there are many more guests lined up in the weeks ahead from the world of sport, music, film, art, broadcasting, literature and politics.