Celtic 4 – 0 Dundee Utd

A dominant Celtic swept past Dundee United 4-0 at Celtic Park to move second in the Scottish Premiership on interim manager Martin O’Neill’s second return to the club.

Celtic were back to their very best after Sunday’s 3-1 home loss to archrivals Rangers – a defeat that saw Wilfried Nancy lose his job – as two goals in just five minutes from Hyun-Jun Yang and Arne Engels put the hosts in control at half-time.

Substitute Benjamin Nygren, with his 11th goal of the season and Daizen Maeda rounded off the scoring in the second period to equal Celtic’s two biggest wins of the league season so far, both secured under O’Neill.

As a result, Celtic moved above Rangers into second place on goal difference and although O’Neill said retaining the title this season would be “a difficult task”, the champions now sit just three points behind leaders Heart of Midlothian ahead of their trip to Dundee on Sunday.

How Celtic returned to winning ways under O’Neill

Nobody in the stadium would have been surprised to see O’Neill restore Celtic’s long-standing 4-3-3 formation and the team picked up where they left off under the Irishman, as if they had awoken from a nightmare and got on with life as normal.

Centre-back Liam Scales was back to the consistent form he displayed before suffering in and out of a back three under the Frenchman.

Callum McGregor dictated play again and Celtic’s wide players, Yang and Sebastian Tounekti, were given attacking licence after being handed wing-back roles by the former Columbus Crew head coach.

Celtic enjoyed 78 per cent possession, had 22 shots at goal and let United have just three. Their opponents averaged 12 shots during Nancy’s tenure and United managed 17 themselves during their 2-1 win over the Hoops at Tannadice less than four weeks ago.

Celtic penned United in from the start, with Kieran Tierney instrumental in creating a series of first-half chances.

The left back had a shot deflected wide, Yang and Scales threatened from headers and Maeda flicked a low cross of the bar, before the pressure paid off in the 27th minute.

Such was Celtic’s dominance that Scales found himself in possession on the edge of the box and rolled a pass to Yang, who drilled home from 20 yards.

Maeda soon mis kicked a volley, before Engels produced a first-time finish from Tierney’s pass.

It was not all plain sailing for Celtic in the first half. Mexican right-back Julian Araujo marked his first start with a yellow card for a dangerous challenge on Will Ferry, who was still hobbling when he took the resulting free kick.

United also had chances and Dario Naamo looked unsure whether to head or volley Craig Sibbald’s deep cross and did neither and Owen Stirton twice came close.

The striker was firstly foiled by a goal-saving block from Scales after being gifted possession by Auston Trusty and later shot just wide from 18 yards after the Celtic central defence backed off.

United brought on winger Amar Fatah for holding midfielder Pan Camara at half-time, but Celtic were even more dominant in the second half.

Reo Hatate and Maeda missed good chances, before Nygren shot high into the net from six yards in the 63rd minute.

Maeda had an easy finish six minutes later after Tounekti’s shot was saved.

What the managers said…

Celtic boss Martin O’Neill to Sky Sports:

“I did enjoy it, I thought we played some really, really great stuff. But the important thing for us was actually to win the game.

“And the first goal still becomes important. We were kind of knocking on the door for a while, looking as if the game could just disappear from underneath you, but overall we were terrific.

“The players performed great, it was 32 passes before we scored in the buildup to the first goal. And that was great. I was perhaps getting as impatient perhaps as the crowd were at the time because sometimes I think we could move it.

“But we did great and the patience was really a virtue at the end. Great goal from Yang, who’s in terrific form at this minute. The whole team were terrific, but he scores the goal and the first goal is really important.

“It gives us all a boost, the way we performed, the goals that we took during the course of the game and obviously the results. So a big, big game on Wednesday evening now for us. Another big, big test. But we’ll try and get ourselves ripe for it, let the lads enjoy tomorrow and back at work on Monday.

“We have to be, we really have to be [up for the title fight]. Sometimes you can read into things that don’t actually exist, but at the end of it all, we have to be up for it. These lads are defending a title that they won last year and they find themselves in a dogfight. That’s what it’s going to be from here to the end of the season.”

Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin:

“When you come to Celtic at the best of times it’s always difficult, but coming into the game we knew there was a little bit of added extra to it with the change of management.

“I felt it would give the Celtic players a lift as well and I think you felt that within the atmosphere in the stadium before the game.

“Celtic were back to playing a system and a formation that suits the players and one that the players are certainly more familiar with. We had to try and adapt to accommodate that.

“Ultimately we haven’t defended the box well enough. The goals are really poor from our perspective.”

On Araujo’s booking, the Irishman added: “For me, it was kind of a dangerous tackle.

“He looked as if he was a little bit out of control and he’s certainly caught Will Ferry a little bit high on the ankle and Will is feeling the effects of that after the game.

“It didn’t seem that VAR spent too much time looking at it.”

What’s coming up in the Scottish Premiership?