Magical Aaron Mooy strengthens Celtic player of the year clamour as winning machine never stops – 3 talking points

Celtic player ratings from 4-1 Premiership win over St Johnstone

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Celtic cruised to a seventh win on the spin with a 3-1 victory of St Johnstone restoring their nine-point lead at the Scottish Premiership summit.

Andy Considine’s own goal and Kyogo’s goal had the champions a couple of goals to the good midway through the first half and threatening to run riot at that stage but Drey Wright pulled one back with a screamer.

A huge task before kick for the home side got even bigger after just 13 minutes as Celtic got the breakthrough – with a little help from Saints. Daizen Maeda led the attack and fed Mooy who slipped the ball to Kyogo on the right side of the penalty box and his low drilled cross was turned into his own net by the unfortunate Considine. And the champions doubled their lead just eight minutes later as they went into cruise control. Mooy was again involved, spraying a pass out wide to Jota.

The Portuguese’s ball into the box should have been dealt with but it went through the legs of Considine and into the path of Kyogo who converted although he had to wait for VAR checking for a potential offside in the build-up before he could celebrate.

Callum Davidson must have been fearing the worst at that point and the game, you assumed, was over as a contest. But Saints refused to throw the towel in at that stage and reduced the arrears in style. Reo Hatate was dispossessed and the ball was worked to Wright who, 20 yards from goal, took one touch to set himself up before unleashing an unstoppable drive beyond Joe Hart.

It gave the Perth men a glimmer of hope but the next goal was crucial and it was Celtic who got it. Jota dinked a lovely pass over the top for Mooy and the Australian lifted it over Remi Matthews to restore the two-goal advantage.

That was hard on St Johnstone but shows what the Hoops can do to opposing teams. And they almost had a third after the restart when Jota’s effort skimmed off the top of the crossbar and despite failing to find that fourth goal, there was no doubt the points were heading back down the A9.

Here’s three talking points from McDiarmid Park

Magical Mooy

There might have been a few who questioned the signing of Aaron Mooy but he has certainly proved any of his doubters wrong. The Australia World Cup star was yet again at his best here and is showing why Ange Postecoglou moved to snap him up. In fact, on this form it’s hard to understand why he was a free agent and available for his old Socceroos boss to swoop.

That has proved such a shrew bit of business, like so many of Postecoglou’s signings. Matt O’Riley hit the ground running when he signed a year ago but Mooy is justifying his selection ahead of the Denmark Under-21 and former MK Dons man including the fact he’s chipping in with vital goals with his strike here taking his tally to six in the last eight games.

Milestone to forget

It was a 600th senior appearance in football for Considine and that is quite an achievement in the modern game for the veteran defender. But he didn’t mark that special occasion in the way he would have liked early on as the 35-year-old turned the ball into his own meet for the opening goal and he failed to deal with what should have been a routine clearance from Jota’s cross for the second Hoops goal. But he can be proud of the number of games he’s racked up and the man capped three times for Scotland still has a bit to go yet before hanging up his boots.

Cup countdown

Celtic are in cruise control and winning their league games with a bit to spare. It’s a cakewalk for Postecoglou’s men who are so far ahead of their domestic rivals. It’s seven wins on the trot now since their Ne’erday derby draw against Rangers at Ibrox. And their fierce rivals are on the same winning sequence – albeit extra time was required to win their Viaplay Cup semi-final against Aberdeen at Hampden – and there is a good chance the pair will win their next two games before they meet again in the Cup final. And it looks like it could take that fixture to really get the juices flowing.