It was easy as you like for Celtic who turned up and swatted St Mirren to go 13 points clear.
A Nicolas Kuhn double and a thumping Auston Trusty header blew St Mirren away as Celtic bounced back from derby defeat with a convincing 3-0 win – and gave them a 13-point Premiership lead.
It was a tale of distinct Celtic dominance from the off and Kuhn’s opener on 33 minutes felt like it had been a long time coming. The German combined well with Daizen Maeda on the opposite flank, the Japanese star racing in behind and playing an inch-perfect ball across goal for Kuhn to convert from 12 yards.
The second goal was as simple as it gets. Arne Engels picked out Auston Trusty with a fizzed inswinging corner and the American was where he needed to be to flash a header goalward and double the lead. His passionate celebration (more on that shortly!) said that this was a defiant response from Celtic off the back of that defeat at Ibrox.
Zach Hemming was back in as a Buddy after Ellery Balcombe’s recall by Brentford but it wasn’t exactly a day for the returning keeper to remember. He spilled one with 23 minutes on the clock and it was Kuhn there to pounce again, poking in his second of the night and his 16th of the season to put the game to bed. He now surges ahead of Jota and James Forrest and looks set to challenge Scott Sinclair for the best season from a winger in the Hoops’ modern history.
Here are our 3 talking points from Parkhead.
Rodgers gets ‘everything’ he wanted
Brendan Rodgers said ‘everything’ had to change from the performance at Rangers and he got his wish here. The lack of purpose and intensity that was evident in that flat display across the city evaporated and made way for the usual furious tempo that has wiped the floor with the rest of Scottish football all season.
Rodgers made four changes and the inclusions of Arne Engels and Luke McCowan in particular made a difference, but what really changed it was the return of their characteristic swagger, attitude and application. Kuhn was back to his electric best while Maeda was a livewire and Adam Idah made himself a handful up top in a way Kyogo often struggles to in these games. All in all, a night-and-day improvement from the Hoops who have a 13-point lead to show for their efforts again. If Scottish football had any notion of doubt around where the power lies, then it doesn’t any more.
Stuttering Saints outworked
St Mirren look to be running out of steam a little and the frustration for Stephen Robinson won’t be that they were swatted by the champions, but that they were outworked along the way. They looked like a team low on confidence and belief after successive defeats, with their usual dogged determination to win second balls and get into faces posted missing.
It looked a dramatically different side to the one who rocked up and ruined Rangers’ title hopes on Boxing Day and, with three defeats on the spin since that one, they’ve got a fight on their hands to stay in the top six. At the end of the day, it was Celtic they were playing here, and Robinson will have seen enough from his team this season and last to know they have the character to come back. But it wasn’t a performance that showed any signs of pulling them out of the slump they’ve fallen into recently and they need a response soon.
£16m well spent
‘Patchy’ would perhaps be the best adjective to describe Arne Engels’ start to life at Celtic but this was a quiet contender for his best game yet in green and white. Rodgers challenged the four players who came in to inject new life into the team and his midfield simply looked better for having the Belgian in it.
A physical machine and technically excellent, he was everywhere from the midfield third onwards. He and Luke McCowan were given plenty of creative license to make things happen beyond Callum McGregor and Engels looked like making something happen whenever he got on the ball. His delivery from dead balls also looks as if it’s going to be a huge asset in the months and years ahead. Reo Hatate and Paulo Bernardo have a hell of a fight on their hands as it now looks like one spot, at least, is Engels’ to lose.
And then there’s Auston Trusty. He and Engels cost a combined £16m in the summer and this was one of the first games this season where, between them, they looked well worth that outlay.
The American was a colossus alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers, registering more clearances and blocks than anyone else on the pitch, and was a big part of the reason St Mirren struggled to get anywhere near the Celtic box on the odd occasion they did advance on the attacking third. Quick, commanding, solid on the ball and off it, he looked a defender tailor-made for Rodgers’ high press. And his badge-thumping after a towering header to double the lead said it all about where the Hoops’ mindset is after that defeat to Rangers – they are back with a bang.
