Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon: Prospect of Dubai break spurred us on

Craig Gordon reckons the lure of Celtic's sunshine break to Dubai was the motivation Brendan Rodgers' side needed to maintain their unbeaten domestic record.

The Hoops faced a gruelling December fixture list packed with eight Ladbrokes Premiership matches, as well as their final Champions League clash away to Manchester City.

But the Hoops refused to be beaten and, after claiming a creditable 1-1 draw with Pep Guardiola's side at the Etihad Stadium, went on to rack up a clean sweep of festive league triumphs.

And Gordon believes the prospect of some time off followed by the warm-weather training camp in the Middle East spurred some of his team-mates on.

Speaking from the club's team hotel in the United Arab Emirates, the goalkeeper told CelticTV: "It was good to get through December undefeated. I'm not sure that too many people on the outside would have thought we were capable of that.

"It was a good achievement. I think having this week in Dubai on the horizon to look forward to got a few players through to the end.

"It was about one last big effort and then we knew we could get the rest and recovery and then do some hard work over here."

And Gordon issued an ominous warning to his side's top-flight rivals when he revealed Rodgers is using the trip to tweak a game-plan than has already claimed 58 points from the 60 available to the Hoops this term.

"The manager wants to get some of his points across," the 34-year-old said. "We've played a lot of games in the last couple of months and he's not really had a lot of time to spend coaching the team.

"So that's what he is doing this week so that he can get his points across and reinforce some of the areas that we still want to improve on.

"The conditions are perfect out here. The weather is always going to be great for training. It's been quite hot but it's a lot nicer than minus-whatever it is back home."