Celtic Four Wins From History: St Johnstone, Rangers, Motherwell and Hearts Stand Between O’Neill and a New Club Record

Celtic are five games into the Premiership season and the numbers could hardly look better.

Five matches. Five wins. Fifteen points.

Saturday night’s 2-1 victory over St Mirren was not the easiest of those wins, but it may have been the most satisfying.

Celtic went behind to Nikolas Agrafiotis’ penalty after Liam Scales was penalised for handball.

They then saw Camilo Duran denied an equaliser by a tight VAR offside decision.

Later, Shim Mheuka also had a goal ruled out after another VAR intervention. On that occasion, the usual offside technology could not produce the lines.

It was a night when Celtic had to overcome more than a determined St Mirren side.

Several major decisions went against Martin O’Neill’s team. Yet Celtic kept playing, kept pushing and eventually got what their performance deserved.

Scales made amends with a powerful second-half header before Yang Hyun-jun finished a superb counter-attack to make it 2-1.

That is what champions do.

They find a way.

Celtic league start now has history in sight

The bigger picture is becoming fascinating.

Celtic have now won their opening five league matches.

The club benchmark for the best winning start is eight consecutive league victories. O’Neill’s side therefore need three more wins to equal that mark and four to stand alone with nine.

The route could hardly be more dramatic.

Celtic’s next four Premiership games are Rangers at Celtic Park, Motherwell away, Hearts at home and Hibernian at Easter Road.

Beat Rangers, Motherwell and Hearts and Celtic would reach eight from eight.

Then victory against Hibernian would make it nine straight league wins from the opening day — a new club record.

That would be some statement, particularly with European football and domestic cup commitments packed around those fixtures.

Celtic league start leaves Rangers looking up

The league table already makes pleasant reading.

Celtic sit top with 15 points from 15. Hearts are second on 12, while St Mirren sit third.

Rangers are fourth.

For all the money spent and all the noise surrounding them, they remain behind three clubs after five matches.

They scraped past Motherwell 1-0 on Saturday after Ryan Naderi punished a goalkeeping mistake.

They were also handed another highly debatable penalty, described by Motherwell themselves as soft, although Kim Min-su put it wide.

So even on a weekend when Rangers won, they hardly produced anything that should have Celtic worried.

Celtic, meanwhile, went to Paisley, fell behind, survived another evening dominated by VAR controversy and still came away with three points.

Nobody wins a title in September.

However, this has been an excellent league start from Celtic.

The performances are improving. The resilience is obvious. The league table is exactly where Celtic want it.

And now there is an extra target.

Four more league wins and this team will have achieved something no Celtic side has previously managed: nine victories from nine to begin a league season.

Rangers come first.

Then Motherwell. Then Hearts.

And if Celtic keep winning, Easter Road could become the stage for history.

Key Takeaways

• Celtic have taken 15 points from their opening five league games.
• Four more consecutive league victories would create a new Celtic record.
• Rangers currently sit fourth, behind Celtic, Hearts and St Mirren.
• Celtic overcame another controversial evening involving VAR in Paisley.