Why there was never any Celtic doubt against Aberdeen as stats paint grimmest of Pittodrie pictures

Celtic have taken such a stranglehold of the cinch Premiership, there was no sense of jeopardy even when they were repelled by Aberdeen for almost 88 minutes at Pittodrie.

Callum McGregor returned to the Celtic starting XI and scored the only goal of the game against Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

Ange Postecoglou’s men expected it, their travelling support expected it, the home players and their legions expected it and, heck, even the little robin then fluttering around the stadium expected it, a Celtic clincher would duly, inevitably, arrive. Everything appears to so seamlessly come together for the Scottish champions in the league domain, the tweeting bird probably had a wager on Callum McGregor being the visiting player to clatter in the winner. As the returning Celtic captain did in almighty fashion thanks to a searing low drive from the edge of the area, the ball having been back-heeled into his path by James Forrest.

It allowed the first game back after the five-week break – and McGregor’s first since he sustained a knee injury in early October – to tick every box for the runaway title leaders against a spectacularly unambitious Jim Goodwin side who elected to contest the encounter only in and around their own. The Aberdeen manager conceded such a niggardly approach – the home team weren’t in a low block so much as a block dug into the earth’s crust – had his followers giving out the grumbles from early on. However, with the Pittodrie back-five’s defending stout and studied, what it also ensured was that they didn’t give out easy chances to their opponents as had been the case when opening up for a 4-1 defeat at Ibrox last month, a day when Goodwin admitted they could have conceded 10.

Celtic, were they at their most slickly incisive, might well have dished out a bleaching to Aberdeen, three days before Goodwin’s men host Rangers. In all measures but the 1-0 scoreline, it was a completely lop-sided confrontation. Celtic had 81% possession, fashioned 33 goal attempts – Kyogo Furuhashi missed a pinch when he knocked wide from the middle of goal early in the second period – and had almost 900 passes. Indeed, in the metronomic McGregor, a player whose 170 completed passes outstripped that figure of 118 from a home team that had not one single effort on target. It wasn’t the easiest watch for the supports of either team, but Postecoglou was keen to commend his players for remaining at ease until the eventual arrival of the 200th goal of his 18-month tenure. Precisely 100 of these netted outwith the environs of Celtic Park. Also moving on to the century mark with his input to the winner was the career assist total for Forrest.

Aberdeen goalkeeper Kelle Roos was left powerless to stop McGregor's strike.

“It is probably as dominant a performance as we have had this year, maybe last year as well,” said the Celtic manager. “This is a difficult place to come to and I thought we controlled the game from start to finish. We did not get the goal until late which adds to the anxiety but there was zero of that in the lads’ performance. They stayed disciplined, stayed controlled – credit to them, I couldn’t be happier not just about the points but the way they went about things. It is not just about having the belief the goal will come but the way they went about it. You can get a little bit desperate. We had totally dominated, they had barely got into our half, let alone our box. Led by the skipper, the boys were controlled and disciplined and wore them down in the end. We got a bit more space, sometimes in football you do not get the rewards you deserve and today we did.

“Having a long break mid season is unusual but you try and do everything you can in terms of maintaining. We gave the boys a week off and I think it helped, watching them train they looked really refreshed in training. They looked ready to me but you don’t know til the game starts. I don’t know if you can teach patience. But it’s part of our process to play football in a certain way. You must have belief in that regardless of the scoreline or what minute it is in the game. We score a lot of late goals - and early goals - that’s because our approach doesn’t change. Home or away, we don’t change. Whether we’re behind or in front, we don’t change. The players understand that and drive it themselves. In that situation, they’re not looking for some magic formula to unlock the opposition. We just keep doing what we’re doing. Sometimes we score early and put games to bed. But the work we did today to constantly ask them questions got us the goal.”

Goodwin was only a handful of minutes away from an acceptable afternoon’s work. A minute is as much as a month in the wrong direction, though, when such profound sacrificing of forward intent ultimately yields nothing. The Irishman didn’t need anyone to impress that on him. “The players put a lot into the game defensively and were very organised and committed,” said Goodwin. “We showed bags of concentration to get to the point where we were hoping to keep a clean sheet. Nobody had been doing that against Celtic, who have been scoring four, five.

“The goal is a fantastic strike and we felt it was going to take something like that to unlock our defence. It was a real bitter pill to swallow because we have put so much into it. Kelle Roos had a few saves in the first half but had very little to do in the second. If we had been sitting here with a 0-0 I would have been very happy but we didn’t get it. Celtic found it hard to break us down and were starting to force things.”

Celtic don’t force, and didn’t. They allowed nature – or, rather, the natural order of Scottish football – to run its course.