Oliver Burke – On our way to make it 10

I wanna be Edouard

Odsonne Edouard has been questioned a lot recently. Many have said he is lazy and not worth the supposed nine million pounds paid for him. I personally feel that both of these statements are entirely false. Edouard has proven many times that he is worth said transfer fee and so much more. I believe the problem is that some people cannot get their heads around the fact that a modern day striker does so much more than simply score goals. They need to be able to hold up the ball and bring other players into the game, as well as creating goals themselves.

His class was on show in yesterdays game against Motherwell as he scored two goals. Celtic went into the game trying to make it nine wins on the bounce domestically. With Rangers winning early on, the pressure was on for them to keep the gap at the top to eight points. From the beginning, Celtic dominated possession, with free-flowing football and looking likely to score at any minute. The opening came when a returning Kieran Tierney sprinted down the left hand-side and played the ball to Ryan Christie who whipped in a cross which was met by Scott Sinclair. The second goal came a mere six minutes later when Ewan Henderson put in a cross which was headed in by Edouard.

Into the second half and a bizarre situation unfolded when a Motherwell player, instead of playing the ball back to the Celtic goalkeeper after Celtic kicked the ball out of play due to Ryan Christie going down injured, decided to keep playing. This led to Motherwell scoring from a re-bound which caused the Celts to lose their perfect clean sheet record domestically in 2019.

This seemed to fire up Celtic as they would go onto score two excellent goals, one a sensational free-kick from Edouard and another a smart finish from substitute Oliver Burke.

Groundhog day

They say there is three certainties in life; death, taxes and Celtic playing St Johnstone. At least this is how it has felt in the last few weeks due to the way the fixtures have lined up.

Not that I am complaining about this particular run of games though. They have been extremely lucrative for Celtic. Three wins, nine goals scored and zero conceded. This mini run of games has contributed nicely to Celtic’s overall flawless record in 2019 of seven wins in a row.

Yesterday’s win against the saints was the best performance of the year so far. Oliver Burke was the star man throughout, as his pace and power was causing St Johnstone problems all afternoon long. It was his first driving run of the game that set up the opening goal as he crossed for Scott Sinclair, who managed to beat the keeper at his near the post. A few minutes later it was two nil, when Scott Brown scored an unbelievable goal from twenty yards out.

Into the second half and despite a change of tactics from the visitors, Celtic continued to dominate. The inevitable third goal came on the fifty-second minute when a great run from Jonny Hayes ended with James Forrest rolling the ball through the keepers legs. A couple of minutes later and it was Burke again who was causing problems. Picking up on a loose ball and running at the St Johnstone defence, he crossed into the box where Sinclair was waiting for a tap in. One minute from time Sinclair completed his hat-trick to book Celtic’s place in the quarterfinal of the Scottish Cup and put to an end the eternity of matches against the Perth side( for now anyway).

Wanting what you cannot have

I have always been fascinated by the men who sign for Celtic that I know the club can’t keep. Players such as Robbie Keane and Patrick Roberts are amongst the talent who I have grown to love most in my time watching football. After Wednesdays game against St Mirren I can now add Timothy Weah and Oliver Burke to the list of players whose departures I won’t ever get over.

Putting the future emotional damage to one side, it was back to basics for Celtic on Wednesday, as they returned to league action for the first time since losing the title to Rangers on the 29th of December. Brendan Rodgers made one change from Saturdays victory against Airdrie, with Kristoffer Ajer replacing Dedryck Boyata. Almost identical to the weekends performance, Celtic dominated possession from the outset. The ball was moving fast and the opening came on the 11th minute when Burke scored his first goal for the club with a header from a Ryan Christie free kick. Celtic continued to pile on the pressure in the first half and the Paisley side were opened up again when Scott Sinclair was fouled inside the box. Just like on Saturday Sinclair stepped up but this time he converted the spot kick.

Into the second half and Celtic continued to dominate. It was only a matter of time before the next goal came and it arrived on the 55th minute when Burke scored his second. Ten minutes later he was replaced by Weah who himself would go on to score four minutes from time. It was another instinctive finish from the American, who similarly to the weekend, ran in behind and finished with one touch.

Even though both Weah and Burke have just arrived it is fair to say that I am already upset at their future goodbye posts on Instagram.