Celtic reinforced the recent Old Firm derby pattern with a routine Scottish Premiership win against Rangers.
Coming in as strong favourites and on their own patch, the champions withstood Rangers’ spiky start before reasserting their familiar dominance.
Daizen Maeda guided in a close-range finish from Alistair Johnston’s cross, as Rangers were manipulated all too easily from a throw-in.
By that point Kyogo Furuhashi had already had a goal ruled out for offside against Nicolas Kuhn, but the Japanese striker would soon add to his bulging derby tally with a precise finish from the edge of the box.
Rangers were fortunate not to be further behind by half-time and started the second period with more urgency, but Cyriel Dessers tamely shot at Kasper Schmeichel when a clinical finish was needed to reignite the contest.
There were chances for both sides in a more low key second period, with Kyogo surprisingly finding the side-netting when played through, and Ross McCausland and John Souttar missing for Rangers.
But Callum McGregor ended the contest with a belting finish from the edge of the box to move his side five points clear of their great rivals with only four league games played.
Celtic hound Rangers into submission
So much of this Celtic performance was a carbon copy of their derby dominance in recent seasons.
The superiority in midfield, blitzing the Rangers full-backs, and another goal from a cutback in a furious first half.
McGregor, usually the orchestrator in chief, was more low key than usual before smashing in the third goal. But, beside him, Paulo Bernardo was everywhere as the Kyogo disallowed goal roused Celtic from an unusual early slumber.
Brendan Rodgers has talked about the quality of their pre-season work to allow them to be better without the ball this season, and that was in evidence yet again here.
They dominated the duels and hounded Rangers, living off their mistakes.
One such incident lead to the second goal as left-back Greg Taylor picked off an underhit ball into midfield before finding Kyogo, who calmly passed the ball beyond the despairing dive of Jack Butland.
All the signs are there that Celtic will be better than last season, both in terms of their evolution under Rodgers and squad depth, given the business done at the end of the window.
That is a terrifying prospect for Rangers and the rest of Scottish football.
