How cold-blooded Celtic finishing left St Johnstone shaken

An Andy Considine own goal - on his 600th club appearance - opened the scoring for the champions before Kyogo Furuhashi's 22nd of the season doubled the advantage.

Drey Wright drilled home a riposte to give the home support hope but Aaron Mooy continued his excellent recent form by making it 3-1 before half-time. Substitute David Turnbull fired in a fourth for the Celts late on.

Ange Postecoglou made just one change to his starting XI from the 3-0 win over Livingston in midweek with Mooy coming into the midfield for Matt O'Riley.

O'Riley made an appearance from the bench alongside scorer Turnbull, Sead Haksabanovic, Liel Abada and Oh Hyeon-gyu.

Here, The Celtic Way rounds up the best StatsBomb data from the game to give you a match report like no other...

xG/trendline

Celtic created all three of the 'best' chances in the match in the first half but carved out marginally more opportunities in the second period (seven vs six).

That said, the accompanying xG that their first-half creation carried was almost three times as high as after the break.

St Johnstone manufactured two chances in the opening half - including Wright's 0.02-rated goal - and doubled that after the break without truly testing Joe Hart again.

This was the third game in a row in which Celtic have scored their best chance of the game statistically (Kyogo's goal was rated 0.41 xG). In actual fact they took both of their best two as Mooy's lob was a 0.32 xG chance.

Saints' best chance of the game was their final one - David Wotherspoon's 87th-minute left-footed blocked strike.

StatsBomb notes that the final cumulative xG totals stood at 1.39-0.28 in Celtic's favour, once again speaking to a clinical display by scoring four times. The Saints are given just a six per cent chance of victory based on the chances each team created.

Shots

The champions generated 13 shots in total, scoring three from four on target plus the Considine own-goal. In addition, four attempts missed and a further four were blocked. Remi Matthews made one save.

That the shots on target carried a combined 0.84 xG but a post-shot xG of 2.01 highlights just how accurate and clinical the Celts were on this occasion.

Celtic managed to create five chances in close, central areas including two of the three goals (three including the own-goal). Three chances were mid-to-high-quality xG.

Eleven of their 13 attempts came from open play with one - Turnbull's late strike - coming via indirect free-kick and the other as a result of a throw-in. The fourth goal was the first to come from a free-kick (direct or indirect) since Josip Juranovic scored against Dundee United in August.

Notably, since creating eight shots from corners against St Mirren on January 18, Celtic have manufactured just two attempts in total across the three matches since including none in this match against St Johnstone.

St Johnstone's map includes six shots with none of mid-to-high-quality xG and none in close, central areas. They had one shot on target - Wright's goal - with four blocked and one missing. Hart made one save.

Individually, Jota took double the number of shots than anyone else in the game with four. Closest to the Portuguese winger were the three Celtic goalscorers - Turnbull, Mooy and Kyogo. The latter's pair of attempts carried by far the highest accompanying xG at 0.60. No St Johnstone player managed more than one effort on goal.

Passing, possession & positions

Celtic enjoyed 70 per cent possession - a full 10 points lower than last time out against Livingston - and completed 639 of 744 pass attempts for an 86 per cent success rate. The Perth Saints managed 204 completed passes from 318 attempts (64 per cent success).

The pass network below gives a sense of where the game was played and who was most involved. The warmer the colour the more influential the player, while the thicker the passing lines the more passes between the players.

StatsBomb measures pass contributions in on-ball value (often referred to as OBV, a term breakdown can be read here).

Greg Taylor, Callum McGregor and Jota's impact on the match shines through in the Celtic network. All three assumed the podium positions for OBV with Jota top dog by a considerable distance.

The network suggests Celtic were a tad deeper on average than usual but the hallmarks of a Postecoglou team are still there in terms of the full-backs joining the midfield. Neither Mooy nor Hatate were pushed quite as high as usual in a domestic match but this could be explained by Kyogo's proclivity for dropping deeper to disturb the Saints defensive plan.

That said, as you can see in the first half versus second half comparison below, that slightly deeper layout was stepped up in the second 45 with more of the game squeezed on to the left flank too.

Carl Starfelt took the most touches with 263 and was involved in all three of Celtic's most common passing combinations. Jota topped the xGChain and was the recipient of the game's most 'dangerous' combo with Mooy.

The hosts' network reflects their fairly rigid 3-4-2-1 / 5-4-1 system. Despite conceding four goals, four of the Saints defence and their goalkeeper returned positive OBV figures. Only goalscorer Wright done the same as an attack-minded player.

Eight different Celtic players played at least one key pass throughout the match. For the second match in succession, three of those were substitutes; Oh, who matched Jota with a game-high two,  as well as Turnbull and O'Riley.

Jota's passes carried the highest accompanying xG with 0.40. Along with an assist for Mooy's goal, the Portuguese was heavily involved in both Considine's own-goal and Kyogo's strike.

Pressing and defending

Celtic made 115 pressures to St Johnstone 132 while also making slightly fewer pressure regains (12 vs 17). The most intense battleground was the home side's right flank with central midfield following close behind.

Ex-Hoops prospect Graham Carey was the game's most persistent presser with 25 while Taylor was top Celt with 17. The Scotland left-back also logged match-high levels of total pressing duration.

Carey also led the charts - alongside team-mate Daniel Phillips - in counter-pressing with six. Kyogo and McGregor took the mantle for top Celts in this regard with five apiece.

Carter-Vickers' Premiership aerial duel map since the start of the year (Image: StatsBomb)

In the traditional defensive metrics one man in particular stood out: Carter-Vickers. 

The USA international made five interceptions, one tackle, was not dribbled past all afternoon and won eight out of eight aerial duels. That latter figure means the 24-year-old has now lost just one aerial duel in the five league games he has played this calendar year.

Alongside him, Carl Starfelt's two interceptions, seven clearances, 11 (of 14) aerial wins and a tackle is worthy of note, as is captain McGregor's two tackles, four interceptions and a clearance.