AND JUST like that, the football's back.

The accelerated winter break has allowed Celtic to recruit and bed in some new players, get injured ones back up to speed and, crucially, ensure fans can be back in the ground.

With the Premiership game against Hibernian approaching, the chance to take stock of where Ange Postecoglou's side are at in the league and why.

With that in mind - and that diving head-first into stats, graphs and charts is what passes for a fun activity on a Monday at TCW - we have decided to highlight some StatsBomb facts and figures from Celtic's league season so far ahead of the resumption...

Goals and concessions

Let's start with the actual league table...

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Despite sitting second, six points behind Rangers, the feeling that the Hoops should be better off holds some water. 

Considering the table through the lens of xG, Celtic's underlying performances reinforce that...

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Since Postecoglou's arrival - and despite all the selection issues he has faced in that time - Celtic are still generally trending in the right direction in terms of scoring opportunities created and chances conceded. 

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In total, Celtic have conceded 12 goals in the league. All of them have come in the box, with four as a result of corners, one from an indirect free-kick, one from a penalty and six from open play (of which five were from crosses).

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Style of play

Celtic also top the table for ball in play time (the average actual clock time the ball spends in play) while perhaps correlated is their league-leading PPDA (pressing intensity)...

Celtic Way: Celtic keep the ball in play over 54 minutes per game on averageCeltic keep the ball in play over 54 minutes per game on average

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Likewise, that intensity of play is further reflected in their table-topping aggression metrics; defined by StatsBomb as the proportion of an opponent's pass receipts that are tackles, fouled or pressured within two seconds.

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READ MORE: Celtic must embrace volatility and risk a more purified version of 'Angeball'

Set-pieces

Viewed as Celtic's greatest weakness so far this season, the underlying stats point to a team simultaneously doing well in attacking set-piece situations but also slightly underperforming in terms of grabbing actual goals from them.

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In real terms this has led to Celtic scoring eight goals from set-pieces, one less than 'expected' while Rangers are massively overperforming with 12 goals from just 8.5 'expected'.

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Defending them is a similar story. Celtic have limited opponents to just 3.5 xG from set-pieces (the lowest total in the league) but have actually conceded five (fifth in the league).

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Intriguingly, despite being bottom of the pile St Johnstone (5.6 xG conceded) are statistically level best with Dundee United (6.9 xG conceded) at preventing actual goals from set-pieces with just three conceded apiece.

The players

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As well as the team-specific numbers in the graphic above, Celtic's players shine league-wide too.

When looking through the prism of attacking production level the men in green and white occupy five of the league's top six spots, with no prizes for guessing who is at the summit (with a ridiculous 1.01 expected goal contributions per 90min)...

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It is a similar story when it comes to on-ball value. OBV is StatsBomb's model that "objectively and quantitatively measures the value of each event on the pitch to identify players that consistently add (or detract) value to their team".

Celtic clock up three of the top five in this metric, with Liel Abada's debut season ranking particularly highly.

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Celts also feature in the top 10s for specific OBV categories such as shooting (Kyogo and Abada), passing (Anthony Ralston and David Turnbull) and dribble/carrying (Abada, Jota and Turnbull). Joe Hart, meanwhile, ranks third in goalkeeper OBV.

Postecoglou's impressive first six months also bode well for the future in a different, more simplistic way than a lot of the metrics already listed: the team is a young one.

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The average age of all players used by the Hoops so far this league season is 25.7, almost two years younger than the league average of 27.1.

The manager is, in fact, using the second-youngest squad in the league already and this is before the four new signings are even considered - all of them are 25 or younger. 

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