PAUL JOHN DYKES:
Tony Watt looked on from the main stand at Fir Park following his recent return to North Lanarkshire from Sofia, as the Irishman who threw him into a Champions League encounter against Barcelona in 2012 locked horns with the Irishman that Watt is trying to win over.
Neil Lennon is a different beast to the one who gave the rookie Watt his biggest opportunity in football over seven years ago. The Celtic side itself is also unrecognisable to the one who shocked European football that unforgettable evening, with Fraser Forster the sole survivor from that famous Barça victory in tonight’s starting line-up.
It was the giant English stopper – surely Lennon’s finest signing second time round – who prevented a Motherwell equaliser just before half-time, when he kept Aarons out following Odsonne Edouard’s opener.
The Frenchman continues to display how special his talent is; tonight’s two-goal salvo prompted Chris Sutton to declare that Edouard is, “The closest thing to Larsson I’ve seen,” and that Celtic’s top goalscorer was, “An absolute snip,” at £9 million.
Eddy’s strike partner, Leigh Griffiths, continues to forge a prolific pairing that is bearing fruit, which means new signing Patryk Klimala will need to satisfy himself with the last ten minutes of games. When he does get a goal-scoring opportunity, however, the Pole cannot afford to fluff his lines, as he did tonight with two minutes to go.
Celtic look unstoppable domestically since switching to two upfront, their bench has a mouth-watering look to it again, and Lennon has discovered that Greg Taylor is his best left-back by some distance.
Celtic being crowned as quadruple treble winners looks like a distinct possibility, followed by the seemingly impossible task of holding on to the best talent we have seen since the King of Kings.
Listen to the latest episode of the award-winning A Celtic State of MindKEVIN GRAHAM:
You just need to enjoy that. If you don’t enjoy that, then give up watching football. If you left the ground or your settee or the pub thinking that the night could have been better, then you may as well give up on life. You will never find happiness if that is the way you behave.
The debate has started. That debate. I will only say that he is better than Dembele and he set a high bar. His goals and assists and his effortless cool makes you glad that he is here. Yes, he is important but just as important to us is Callum McGregor. His goal was all technique. His assist was determination. His game intelligence is a wonder.
There is still plenty of football to play. We won’t be as fluent or fearless in games to come but that was a message tonight.
🍀 A CELTIC STATE OF MIND
⭐️ Man of the Match
🏆 Motherwell 0 Celtic 4
1️⃣ Odsonne Edouard
2️⃣ Callum McGregor
3️⃣ Olivier Ntcham
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