Celtic 6-0 Aberdeen: Hosts eight points clear after dominant victory over dismal Dons
Celtic restored their eight-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership as they thumped six goals past an acquiescent Aberdeen.
Brendan Rodgers' side all but settled the game within the opening 16 minutes following a Yang Hyun-jun header and tap-in from Kyogo Furuhashi, who later departed with a head injury following an aerial challenge from Slobodan Rubezic.
Aberdeen were rarely seen as an attacking force, never mind one that was likely to stretch their unbeaten run to four games.
The biggest surprise was that it took Celtic until the 77th minute to stretch their lead through Luis Palma's penalty, with David Turnbull and Oh Hyeon-gyu - twice - adding the gloss in stoppage time.
There was no evidence of Celtic feeling any pressure from Rangers' earlier win away to Livingston, which narrowed the gap at the top to five points, as they eased to a ninth consecutive win over the Dons.
Aberdeen manager Barry Robson had made four changes, only one of them forced, as he looked to introduce fresh legs into a side who battled to a brave 2-2 draw away to POAK in the Europa Conference League on Thursday.
However, it was one of the two new faces introduced by Rodgers following his side's 6-0 Champions League thumping by Atletico Madrid that lit up the early stages.
Yang was the beneficiary of Daizen Maeda's absence through injury and the South Korea forward immediately started weaving patterns round the mesmerised Dons defence.
When he threaded through to Kyogo, the normally deadly Japan striker had his shot parried by goalkeeper Kelle Roos into the path of Matt O'Riley, who also somehow missed the target.
Celtic would not be denied for long as Roos failed to cut out Luis Palma's driven cross and Yang had the simple task of nodding into the unguarded net after only nine minutes.
Yang turned provider seven minutes later as he flicked through to O'Riley, whose low ball to the front post was directed home by the toes of Kyogo.
Despite those early blows and his defence continuing to yield chances, Robson would not be shaken from his attempt to frustrate with a 5-4-1 formation.
Jonny Hayes, the former Celtic wing-back given a start by Robson, did slice wastefully wide as he failed to capitalise on a rare break up the other end, but the traffic continued towards Roos, who saved well from both Odin Holm and Palma.
Visiting centre-half Slobodan Rubezic was lucky to only be shown yellow for a headed challenge on Kyogo that forced the groggy Celtic striker to be replaced shortly after the break.
Aberdeen finally got an attempt on target after 59 minutes as Robson finally tweaked his formation, but Bojan Miovski's front-post flick was straight at goalkeeper Joe Hart.
However, the roof fell in for Aberdeen after Jack MacKenzie was adjudged to have fouled Oh as the striker shot for goal 12 yards out and winger Palma slotted powerfully from the spot.
There was still time for Turnbull to fire in off the post and Oh to head home a superb Palma cross.
Player of the match - Yang Hyun-jun (Celtic)
More to follow.
What's next?
Celtic entertain Motherwell on Saturday, 25 November (15:00 GMT), while Aberdeen host Rangers on the following day (12:00).
