It’s incredible the difference a few weeks can make.
After an early Champions League qualifiers exit followed by losing at Tynescatle to Hearts in the league opener you couldn’t buy optimism at Celtic Park.
But after a 4-2 win in the Czech republic against Jablonec in the Europa League followed by a 6-0 win at Dundee the mood began to lift.
With Rangers losing for the first time up at Tannadice after a 40 game unbeaten league run and subsequently tumbling out of the Champions League themselves courtesy of a 4-2 aggregate loss to Malmo that mood got even better.
Now with Jablonec seen off 7-2 on aggregate after a comfortable 3-0 win last Thursday followed by a 3-2 win over Hearts at Celtic Park in the League Cup on Sunday the feeling isn’t far off euphoria.
Results are ultimately what makes the difference but it’s the level of performance that is what really has everyone purring.
Celtic truly do look rejuvenated under new boss Ange Postecoglou with newfound vitality and rhythm to their play which completely sweeps away memories of the tripe being served up in the last campaign.
We look at it and the players look like they are enjoying it for the first time in a long time.
By and large, the personnel hasn’t changed all that much save new keeper Joe Hart, centre back Carl Starfelt and striker Kyogo Furhashi – winger Liel Abada has been out injured for the last two games – but the new players have definitely made a difference.
Kyogo in particular looks sensational and has already scored five goals and shown a general level of performance in regards to work rate and technique which has blown everyone away.
He just looks like he’s loving the stage.
Meanwhile, Joe Hart did something not seen at Parkhead in a long time in that he actually made some good saves against Jablonec.
Such a feat was seldom achieved by his immediate predecessors in the No.1 jersey namely Varkas and Bain.
Against the Czechs, a wonderful double from David Turnbull – his first a neat finish after a lovely reverse pass into the box from Greg Taylor followed by a 25-yard howitzer into the corner of the net early in the second half – was added to on the 72nd minute by James Forrest who followed up on a save from the visiting keeper after sub Odsonne Edouard had failed to finish.
The roar for the goals though was actually exceeded by the reaction to Joe Hart’s double save firstly from striker Martin Dolezal who had tried to capitalise from a wayward backpass from Callum McGregor followed by denying Milos Kratochvíl at point-blank range.
In the end, it was fairly comprehensive against Jablonec who were a tidy side but no more.
On Sunday Hearts came visiting and Celtic were looking for payback having been humbled in the capital 15 days earlier and duly delivered with a wonderful surging performance.
Celtic dominated from the off and got their just deserts on 29 mins after Kyogo’s sensational cross-field pass found James Forrest in the box who laid it back for Edouard to open the scoring.
Five minutes later it was 2-0 as Kyogo played a short corner to Edouard who turned and delivered an inch-perfect cross to set up the soaring Stephen Welsh who headed home past Craig Gordon.
Alas Celtic still have a defensive error in them and on 56 minutes Carl Starfelt had his pocket picked by Liam Boyce in the box and after taking him down the Hearts striker converted the penalty.
But any worries about throwing it away were eased when Kyogo lashed home the third goal on 63 minutes.
Thereafter Craig Gordon made some fine saves from long-range efforts as finally Celtic’s bewildering pace withered but sub Aaron McEneff scored in the dying seconds of injury time for the Jam Tarts after another defensive lapse to make the scoreline far more respectable than it should have been.
Still, the whistle blew moments later and Celtic secured a quarter-final home draw against Raith Rovers in late September.
And next up the Europa League play-off against Dutch side AZ Alkmaar.
As you might expect from a Dutch side they are no mugs having finished third in the Eredivisie last season with 71 points only a point behind second-placed PSV and having only lost five of their 34 league games in a campaign which saw them score 75 goals and concede 41.
But this season hasn’t gotten off to the best start having sold top scorer Myron Boadu for €17,000,000 to Monaco not to mention the sales of goal-scoring winger Calvin Stengs and veteran goalkeeper Marco Bizot both of whom also departed for France.
With captain Teun Koopmeiners being linked with an imminent move to Serie A side Atalanta it’s no surprise they looked a shadow of themselves during their league opener to newly-promoted RKC Waalwijk at the weekend which saw them go down 1-0.
So we really couldn’t be getting them at a better time.
The first leg will be at home so coming out of the traps quickly and hitting them hard with the sort of relentless play we showed on Sunday is a must as going by our historic away form on the continent you wouldn’t put much faith in us pulling the tie out of the bag in the second leg.
They’ll certainly be a big step-up from Jablonec and Hearts but with seven competitive games in our legs and goals galore over the last four games going up against a side who are being gradually stripped of their best assets and have only one competitive game to their name which ended in defeat it’s not a stretch to make us clear favourites.
Let’s hope it works out that way.
....Always A Tim! 