Was St Mirren win Celtic's most one-sided game yet?

Ange Postecoglou's men trailed at half-time after Mark O'Hara's conversion from 12 yards but roared back in the second 45 to score five times - including four in 16 minutes - to restore their nine-point lead at the Premiership summit.

The goals came courtesy of five different players: Jota, Alistair Johnston, Liel Abada, Matt O'Riley and Oh Hyeon-gyu. The latter three of those were substitutes, once again emphasising the tremendous strength in depth at Postecoglou's disposal.

Despite his plethora of options. the manager opted to begin the game with the same starting XI that had begun the League Cup final win over Rangers a week prior. It was just the fourth time Postecoglou named an unchanged starting team this season.

Along with the three goalscorers, Sead Haksabanovic and Tomoki Iwata were handed valuable game-time from the bench.

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

xG/trendline

"I still thought they didn't really create much," Postecoglou said after the match. "They got a couple of balls in the box but I thought we created a couple of really good opportunities."

As is often the case, the Celtic manager's assessment was pretty spot on. While the champions could not manufacture any chances in the opening 20 minutes (signified by the flatline until around that point) they prevented the hosts from creating... anything at all.

Indeed the penalty was the only attempt the Buddies had all day and accounted for every bit of their cumulative xG.

By contrast, after the opening 20 minutes or so, Celtic went from strength to strength on the creativity front and managed to turn seven chances and no goals in the first 45 into a further nine opportunities and five goals in the second.

Statistically, the 'best' chances of the game were Oh and O'Hara's penalties (0.78 xG) but from open play the honour went to Abada - not for his goal but for his 64th-minute miss which was rated 0.46 xG.

Despite missing their best open-play opportunity the Hoops scored their next-best three - the finishes by O'Riley (0.36), Jota (0.20) and Johnston (0.19).

StatsBomb notes that the final cumulative xG totals stood at 2.78-0.78 in Celtic's favour, reinforcing not only another clinical offensive display but a resolute defensive one. The Buddies are given just a two per cent chance of victory based on the opportunities each side created.

Shots

The champions generated 16 shots in total, scoring five from seven on target. Only two of their attempts missed while seven were blocked. Trevor Carson made two saves.

That the shots on target carried a combined 1.79 xG but a post-shot xG of 3.84 highlights just how accurate and clinical this Celtic side is becoming on a consistent basis.

Celtic managed to create 10 chances inside the Saints box, including Oh's penalty. All four goals came from the penalty spot and closer. Six of their attempts were of mid-to-high-quality xG, from which they scored four.

Ten of the 16 efforts and three of the five goals were manufactured from open play. As well as Oh's penalty goal the Hoops scored from Aaron Mooy's indirect free-kick pass to Johnston. They added another attempt off the back of an indirect free-kick as well as three from corners.

As mentioned, St Mirren managed only one attempt and that was O'Hara's penalty. Beyond failing to stop that, Joe Hart did not have a save to make all game.

Individually, three Celts - Reo Hatate, Abada and Jota - tied for most attempts with three apiece. Abada's carried the highest combined xG at 0.56 while Oh's two efforts topped the lot with 0.88 (albeit 0.78 was from the penalty).

Passing, possession & positions

Celtic enjoyed 80 per cent possession - a full 10 points above their league average this campaign - and completed 748 of 852 pass attempts for a laudable 88 per cent success rate.

The Buddies, conversely, managed 108 successful passes from 213 attempts (51 per cent completion).

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).

Three starting players shine through with dark red nodes in this one: centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers, left-back Greg Taylor and midfielder Mooy. All three were the standouts in OBV return with Mooy top of the pile.

Also reflected in the starting XI network is the relatively quiet afternoons had by Daizen Maeda, Hatate and Kyogo while Jota's average position, it should be noted, is likely influenced by his switching wings.

Comparing Celtic's first half map to their second half one throws up not only that the team was taking up higher positions on average after the break but that they went right-side dominant.

This is reinforced by the impact of Abada on the right-hand side. Indeed the Israeli's contribution returned an OBV score good enough to knock Carter-Vickers out of the top three.

Taylor took the most touches with 243 and was involved in two of the team's top three most common passing combinations. However, it was Mooy who topped the xGChain on this occasion.

St Mirren's network clearly demonstrates their back five setup with out-of-position defensive midfielder Alex Gogic a de facto sweeper flanked by Marcus Fraser and Charles Dunne. Curtis Main and Alex Greive are rather isolated as dual attackers.

Only one attack-minded home player - O'Hara - returned a positive OBV figure.

In their last Premiership outing, 11 different Celts played at least one key pass against Aberdeen. On this occasion it was seven with Hatate and Mooy leading the pack with three each. 

No St Mirren player managed one as remarkably the whole team returned 0.00 xG figures when it came to passing, such was the total dominance enjoyed by the champions combined with the hosts' ineffective attacking play.

Pressing and defending

Celtic made just 64 pressures to St Mirren's 217 but made only five fewer pressure regains (23 vs 18). The most intense battleground was Celtic's left flank but of particular note is the level of pressing actions in the centre of the park too.

By the same token, it is no shock then that Mooy was Celtic's leading presser (10). Given the way the game was played, it is also unsurprising that nine of the top 10 most persistent pressers were St Mirren players.

It was different when it came to counter-pressing, with O'Riley and Mooy leading all players in that metric with four apiece while Hatate, Maeda and Jota matched the Buddies' top three - Greg Kiltie, O'Hara and Keanu Baccus - with three each.

Naturally, more Saints players racked up the numbers in the traditional defensive metrics than Celts. 

However, of note was winger Jota's contribution. The Portuguese made three tackles and an interception while not allowing himself to be dribbled past all game.

Elsewhere, centre-backs Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt combined for five interceptions, four clearances and 16 aerial wins.