Celtic continued their formidable domestic form at home with an emphatic Scottish Premiership victory over St Mirren.
Liel Abada crashed out in the opener after 15 minutes as St Mirren’s positive start quickly faded.
Kyogo Furuhashi added a tricky lob before the break and then completed a sweeping move to ensure Celtic won an 11th consecutive league game at home.
David Turnbull fired in the fourth from 25 yards to seal the points.
Ange Postecoglou’s side remain nine points clear of rivals Rangers after seeing convincingly the only Scottish side to beat them this season.
St Mirren, who drop to seventh, are also the last to win at Celtic Park domestically almost two years ago, and they threatened to cause more problems for the champions after a brilliant start.
But two minutes after Curtis Main’s goal was ruled out for a tight offside, Abada struck home from inside the box after Trevor Carson denied Carl Starfelt and debutant Yuki Kobayashi struck a post.
From then on, Celtic were in charge. Reo Hatate’s wonderful back pass found Kyogo, who managed to pick the ball up acrobatically over the advancing Carson and into the net.
And the Japanese striker added his 18th goal of the season eight minutes into the second half as Celtic struck fast and took possession of the ball in their own half.
Jota was released on the left and crossed for home with Kyogo’s side foot, and the original decision to disallow the strike for offside was overturned after a VAR check.
Kyogo was then ruled offside by VAR after setting up James Forrest for what Celtic thought was their fourth goal, which came spectacularly from Turnbull.
The substitute clinically led a long-range shot past Carson after a short Celtic corner, which extended his national unbeaten record at home to 40 matches.
St Mirren have yet to win just once on the road but continued to struggle and came close to a consolation goal when Declan Gallagher headed Ryan Strain’s cross over the bar.
Player of the Match – Kyogo Furuhashi
Tactical tweak helps Celtic settle – analysis
Celtic were sloppy before, and briefly after, Abada’s goal as St Mirren brought them the game. Full-backs Josip Juranovic – who played out of position on the left – and Alistair Johnston were ousted by St Mirren every time they came onto the pitch, as is regularly the case with Celtic.
Postecoglou probably told them to keep their width as they started to squeeze the touchlines more tightly and gave St Mirren full-backs and midfielders more thought.
It stretched the visitors, and from there Celtic movement and skill took root and there seemed to be only one result. Kyogo was a joy to watch as his quick changes of direction and clever moves proved a constant threat.
St Mirren, meanwhile, can be relatively pleased with their efforts. Seems odd considering the scoreline, but they started strong and kept attacking throughout. Stephen Robinson’s side have won just one of their last 10 league games but there is no immediate concern.
It is only the second time in this series that they have lost by more than one goal, and they are far from the only Premiership side to have a bad run. They need to react quickly, but the proof of this season so far is that they will push to finish in the first half.
what they said
Celtic coach Ange Postecoglou: “I think it was a really good overall performance. We did pretty well in all aspects of our game tonight. We started the game well.
“They have threats, especially long throws, that you have to defend in the box and I think we dealt with that well. It’s four great goals and we had some great moves that didn’t end in goals. .”
St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson: “Celtic were excellent. I think what disappoints me is that we conceded two set pieces – our first of the whole year. They didn’t have to work for those two goals.
“We’ve done that well enough so far and shown we have the quality to break and pick passes, but we didn’t do that tonight and we had too many people who weren’t on top out of shape and you can’t come here and have that.”
And after?
It’s Scottish Cup weekend as Celtic host Morton in their fourth round tie on Saturday (12.15 GMT), while St Mirren also host a Championship side in Dundee, who visit Paisley ( 3 p.m.).
