Scottish Premier League/ Aberdeen 1 Celtic 3: It is testimony to the professionalism and single-mindedness of the Celtic players that, unlike their followers, they are not treating the demise of Rangers as a reason to celebrate.
Gordon Strachan's men have a league to win, and so long as Hearts provide serious competition at the summit of the SPL they simply must keep on recording victories, especially at traditionally troublesome venues such as Pittodrie.
Aiden McGeady, Stilian Petrov and Paul Telfer were on target as Celtic responded perfectly to Jamie Winter's opener for Aberdeen during a scintillating second-half spell to move a point ahead of Hearts at the top of the table. Strachan's men are already looking ominously menacing despite last week's defeat to lowly Dunfermline.
"The players knew that if they kept moving the ball about, then Aberdeen would tire," said the former Coventry and Southampton manager. "And, importantly, they had enough confidence to stick to that, even after losing the opening goal. Several players played a lot better than they did last week, and Shunsuke Nakamura was outstanding."
Strachan, of course, was a player in these parts during one of the most successful eras in the north-east club's history. Celtic's manager retains close links with Aberdeen and is held in high regard by their supporters, who offered him a warm pre-match welcome.
There followed 53 minutes of pedestrian play from both sides before the former Leeds trainee Winter crashed home his first league goal from 25 yards. At that point, Aberdeen looked in with a chance of their first home victory over Celtic for four years.
But the visitors, who were without the dropped Mo Camara and injured Chris Sutton, hit back almost immediately when the spritely McGeady pounced on a blocked Bobo Balde shot to bury a half-volley in the top corner.
Ryan Esson then fumbled John Hartson's 12-yard effort, and Petrov stroked in the rebound. Celtic are rarely denied once in front and sealed the game after 64 minutes when Telfer opened his season's scoring account.
* Guardian Service
ABERDEEN: Esson, McNaughton, Diamond, Considine, Byrne, Nicholson, Winter, Clark, Muirhead (Mackie 71), Crawford, Smith. Subs Not Used: Langfield, Dempsey, Stewart, Foster, Baas. Booked: Smith, Esson. Goals: Winter 53.
CELTIC: Boruc, Telfer, Balde, McManus, Wallace, Nakamura, Lennon, Petrov, McGeady, Zurawski (Maloney 75), Hartson (Virgo 87). Subs Not Used: Marshall, Thompson, Pearson, Agathe, Lawson. Booked: Lennon. Goals: McGeady 56, Petrov 58, Telfer 64.
Referee: C Richmond (Scotland).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)