Brendan Rodgers has a very favourable record against St Johnstone as Celtic manager, having not lost a game against the Saints with his only points dropped being draws home and away against the Perthshire side.
Rodgers has kept clean sheets in each of his last 7 games against St Johnstone and has dished out some demolition jobs to St Johnstone teams.
However, Steven MacLean’s side will be desperate to end their poor start to the 2023/24 campaign and there would be no better way to do that than by getting their first win of the season against the reigning champions Celtic.
St Johnstone 2-5 Celtic – Scottish Premiership – February 5th 2017
A game highlighted by a Puskas award nominated goal. Celtic came hot out of the blocks as Liam Henderson, now playing for Serie A side Empoli, put the Hoops ahead after just 6 minutes.
However, the Saints fought back to take the lead into halftime as Keith Watson tied things just after the half-hour mark before David Wotherspoon saw his effort deflect in off Dedryck Boyata.
Celtic had an unbeaten run hanging in the balance and none other than Moussa Dembele entered the field for the second half and changed the game. Celtic were handed a lifeline just after the hour mark as a Watson handball allowed Dembele to convert a penalty kick and bring Celtic back level.
It was one-way traffic from then onwards as goals from Dembele and Sinclair put the Hoops 2 clear.
The highlight of the game as previously mentioned was Celtic’s 5th as a rabona cross from Mikael Lustig found Callum McGregor in the box who flicked it to Dembele to slam home his hat-trick and seal the points in style.
St Johnstone 0-6 Celtic – Scottish Premiership – 7th October 2018
It is often spoken about as to just how good James Forrest was under the tutelage of Brendan Rodgers and this game made things abundantly clear, arguably Forrest’s best individual performance in a Celtic shirt.
Celtic had had some troubles on their travels to start the 2018/19 campaign with losses at Tynecastle and Rugby Park as well as a draw in Paisley meaning Celtic were without an away win on their travels.
Celtic were looking to put any fan worries to bed on this day as they went out at MacDiarmid Park and dismantled St Johnstone. Forrest got the scoring underway on 15 minutes and by the 38th minute he had completed his hat-trick.
Odsonne Edouard was also in and amongst the goals in the first half but it was James Forrest who was the star of the show aa he grabbed his fourth goal of the game just before the break.
McGregor capped off the performance with Celtic sixth goal of the game in the 84th minute and ensured Celtic would grab their first away win of the season, a massive hurdle to get over.
St Johnstone 0-2 Celtic – Scottish Premiership – 3rd February 2019
It was a late show on this day as two goals in the final 12 minutes ensured Celtic went 6 points clear at the top of the table.
Celtic were toiling over the course of the game with a knock for Kristoffer Ajer and an injury to Mikael Lustig forcing the swede off at half-time disrupting Celtic’s rhythm. Lustig was replaced by none other than Jeremy Toljan.
Celtic pressed and pressed in the second half as they went in search of the winner and James Forrest popped up with a goal in the 78th minute.
The Hoops made the points safe late as Timothy Weah finished off a brilliant sweeping move to ensure Celtic walked away with 3 the points despite a late Ajer red card.
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