Two 6-0 results. Two vastly different reactions. If ever a week in football summed up the split-personality of Celtic then this was surely it.
It exposed the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the club. Domestically dominant. European exiles. Celtic seem to straddle a football no man's land - too good for Scotland but not quite good enough for Europe.
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The Scottish champions picked themselves up off the canvas in spectacular style against Aberdeen after their midweek mauling at the hands of Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid. There was lots for Rodgers to purr over as Celtic produced their best domestic display of the season to blow the Reds away and stay eight points clear at the summit.
In fact, the Northern Irishman summed it up rather neatly and succinctly in the aftermath when he rather presciently uttered these words: "I said to the players that throughout your life as a footballer and players that throughout your life as a football player and a manager is that you have pain points within your season that hurt and obviously that was one of them.
"The beauty of having those moments is it gives you a great opportunity to show your mentality in order to bounce back. It is how you respond is where you are judged.”
Celtic responded and then some. It was a defiant message to any pretenders to their Scottish Premiership crown that they are going to have to go some to knock the men in green and white from their lofty perch astride the top of Scottish football.
Six goals. Five different scorers; counters from Korean winger Yang Hyun-Jun - his first for the club; a 62nd Celtic career goal in 101 games for Japanese talisman Kyogo Furihashi; a fourth league goal of the season for Honduran wideman Luis Palma; an obligatory strike from Scottish midfielder David Turnbull and a brace from Korean striker Oh Hyeon-Gyu. Celtic currently occupy three of the top four goalscorer spots in the Scottish Premiership charts with O'Riley, Turnbull and Kyogo all sitting on six league goals and counting.
It all added up to a very satisfactory day at the office in Glasgow's east end. Talk about banishing the memory or exorcising the ghosts of Madrid. Celtic may have been left to chase shadows in the Spanish capital but there was no hangover from that match as Rodgers’ pre-game pep talk to his players - as he explained beforehand- produced the desired effect.
Celtic's passing was crisp, fluent and it was all done at a breakneck speed and pace that Aberdeen just couldn't live with. It was the Atletico v Celtic clash in reverse. It was the epitome of the 'rip-roaring, free-scoring, never-boring Glasgow Celtic'.
Everyone player played their part. Take the hosts wingers for example. Rodgers really has a potent weapon at his disposal in Palma but more about him in a second. Yang will be all the better having had the weight of opening his Celtic account lifted from his shoulders. Compatriot Oh's double also cannot be discounted as they were big moments in their respective club careers for both players.
As Rodgers duly noted after Palma earned the sponsors man of the match award after contributing three assists and a goal at the weekend: "He (Palma) was very, very good. He showed variety and he showed he is developing here as did Yang getting his goal at the back post.
"Normally you see wingers on the outside looking in but both of those guys contributed really well. He is a very talented player, Luis, he can create a goal and score a goal and he did that for us."
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Palma is already on five goals (four league goals) and five assists for the campaign. Those figures are excellent. He is comfortable in his own skin and he is enjoying playing with his teammates and loving his surroundings.
His outside of the boot cross for Oh to head in the fifth in injury-time was so nonchalant that it bordered on gallus. It was very Lubomir Moravcikesque. Ironically if that goal looked familiar then that's because it was as back in 1998 Lubo pulled off the same audacious cross to a certain Henrik Larsson to score with his head on a day when Celtic scudded Dundee 6-1. Similar goals delivered by two wonderful technicians a quarter-of-a-century apart. What are the chances?
Celtic like their gallus type maverick players. They have a history of unearthing them. The off-the-cuff types that don't stick to the script and can produce something special when it matters.
Not only that but Palma is showing that he can fill the wide void left by Jota's summer departure to Saudi outfit Al-Ittihad. Celtic were well aware that whilst they would probably never replace the precocious talent that was Portuguese superstar Jota. However, if they could unearth a player who could contribute in terms of goals and assists then they would be onto a winner. With Palma in situ, Rogers look as though he’s found his man.
By default, Celtic may have also found a new reliable penalty taker after Palma confidently rammed home the third from 12 yards against the Reds with the minimum of fuss. It's early days, of course, but Palma is full of promise and potential. Like Jota before him he looks like a potential superstar in the making. It's city rivals Rangers who may well rue the day that they overlooked Palma to secure other signing targets.
Celtic sent out a statement of domestic intent with their emphatic gubbing of the Granite City dwellers. And yet, that's exactly the problem with Celtic right now. To paraphrase Jekyll and Hyde: "Celtic is not truly one but truly two."
Imperious domestically. Inferior in Europe. There in lies a football conundrum for Rodgers and his men if ever there was one. It really is a strange case.
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