Eight steps to eight in a row: How Celtic won the league

Odsonne Edouard celebrates with teammates during the 2-1 win over Rangesr in March. Pic: SNS

The win over Aberdeen that clinched Celtic the title yesterday means that with 84 points they have already surpassed their points total from last season. They still require to take three from their final two games to top the 86 points total from Ronny Deila’s supposedly indifferent second season of 2015-16. The 106-point haul from Brendan Rodgers’ first season (2016-17) remains out of reach.

2 King Edouard

With 15 goals, Odsonne Edouard is out in front as Celtic’s top league scorer from this campaign. The Frenchman is some way off the 31 league strikes in 2015-16 that allowed Leigh Griffiths to become the most prodigious plunderer across the club’s eight-in-a-row run.

3 Squad system

Celtic have used 34 players in the Premiership this season. With 33 appearances, James Forrest and Callum McGregor have accumulated most game-time in the league. With a solitary 89th-minute substitute appearance – against Kilmarnock on 17 February – now injured January signing Vakoun Issouf Bayo is at the other end of the scale.

4 Setbacks

The four defeats they have suffered this season represents as many as they did in Brendan Rodgers’ two full seasons in charge – last season bringing four league reverses on the back of the undefeated treble success. In the 2012-13 season, they were beaten seven times in the championship, the most defeats in the course of the eight titles sequence.

5 The Lennon factor

Neil Lennon has now played a role in four of the eight straight championships that Celtic have racked up. He started the sequence by managing the club to their  2011-12 success, then guided them to the two that followed in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

6 10 in a row v Rangers

Celtic’s 1-0 win over Rangers on 2 September made for a tenth straight league derby without defeat in the fixture for the club. This is the longest ever league unbeaten run for Celtic against Rangers but it came to an end on 29 December when Rodgers’ side lost 1-0 at Ibrox, Ryan Jack scoring the decisive goal for the hosts.

7 Forrest’s Perth-quake

The biggest league away win of this season proved a personal triumph for James Forrest, who claimed four goals in a devastating 30-minute first-half burst as St Johnstone were swept aside 6-0 in Perth on 7 October. It marked the biggest win of Rodgers’ time in charge, and the first time that Celtic had posted a 6-0 victory on the road in the league since this scoreline was achieved at Kilmarnock on 7 April 2012.

8 Five-star show against Killie

Arguably Celtic’s finest league display of the season came against then Premiership leaders Kilmarnock. The 5-1 victory in Glasgow, earned with a quintet of first-half goals that had Rodgers purring over an “outstanding team performance”, allowed the Parkhead club to claim the top spot that they never thereafter relinquished.