OPINION
Celtic enjoyed a very good day at the office on Saturday as they cruised to a 3-0 victory over Airdrieonians in the Scottish Cup fourth round.
The Hoops took the lead against Airdrie through Scott Sinclar in the 37th minute, who went on to grab another nearly 20 minutes later, before Timothy Weah scored the final goal of the game after coming off the bench.
Brendan Rodgers side’s latest victory keeps the dream of achieving the ‘treble-treble’ alive and more importantly the manager would have learnt a lot about his side.
This is Futbol has rounded up three things learned about the Hoops:
Johnston and Weah could get tongues wagging
Mikey Johnston and Weah both came off the bench in the 69th minute of the game and certainly made a memorable impression. Both are exciting players due to their pace and attack-minded play and it’s clear they will get tongues wagging every time they are deployed in the second half of the season. While Johnston was impressive as he has been in a lot of his outings this season, it’s clear to see that Celtic have borrowed the services of someone just as,if not more so, scintillating as him. It’s to imagine that both attackers will be stealing the headlines and exciting fans in the games still left to come based on their very positive cameo appearances. Especially in the case of Weah who calmly took his opponent to open his account club by scoring in the 83rd minute.
Bitton return a boost
You will be forgiven if you forgot that defensive midfielder Nir Bitton was still at Celtic as it’s been a while since he has been seen in action. However the 27-year-old gave Rodgers a nice boost by playing a few minutes on Saturday to mark his return to the team. Bitton has been out of action for almost a year (Source: BBC) and while he will face a battle to get back into Rodgers’ first-team plans, at least he is now an option. The midfielder has played a 172 times for the Hoops so hopefully he can stay fit in order to help his side in 2019.
Christie on fire
Ryan Christie was in tip-top form against Airdrie and looked completely on-fire through the game. While questions will be asked about the calibre of his opponent, it shouldn’t be underestimated how good the 23-year-old right-sided midfielder looked in his latest outing. Christie has featured 14 times in the league this season and you feel that if he can produce the sort of performance he did against Airdrie on Saturday, he’ll be a regular staple on Rodgers’ team and play an important role in their push for trophies. Every thing seemed to go right for Christie against Airdrie as his passing was on point and he looked chomping at the bit to make a positive impression.