Fourth Straight Title For Celtic

Celtic are the Scottish Premiership champions.

It is a sentence that could have been written with some confidence on the opening day of the league season, when the Hoops got their title defence off to a winning start under new boss Ronny Deila with a 3-0 victory at St Johnstone.

Indeed, and while some might whisper it, the victory announcement could have been put on annual time release when traditional rivals Rangers - the only other winners of the top flight in Scotland since 1985 - were assigned to the bottom tier of Scottish football in 2012 following their inglorious descent into administration and liquidation.

It is the Parkhead club's fourth successive title win and, despite a valiant attempt by improving runners-up Aberdeen - whose 1-0 loss at Dundee United on Saturday confirmed Celtic's title win - it should be noted that the Glasgow club won all three meetings against Derek McInnes' side this season.

That another two of Scotland's biggest clubs, Hearts and Hibernian, were also operating outside the top league, of course, is not the fault of the Parkhead side.

However, speaking before the 5-0 thrashing of Dundee at Parkhead on Friday night, midfielder Kris Commons revealed the lack of tension this season.

He said: It wasn't like a couple of years back when Rangers were in the league and we thought, 'We need to get back on level points or we need to win to pull three points away'.

It always felt very tight and every game had a massive importance, whereas I've never got that sort of feeling of, 'Listen, we need to win this game no matter what because if we don't Aberdeen are going to be hot on our tails'.

I always felt that we were going to come out on top.''

Celtic's Norwegian boss expressed his desire to continue the Hoops hegemony when asked if the Celtic could match Rosenborg and win 13 consecutive titles.

He replied: Everything is achievable. So that is the dream, to keep on winning, winning, winning. And to go to the Champions League and make Scottish people proud of Celtic.''

Deila had coveted that much rarer achievement - the domestic clean sweep - when he arrived last summer as a somewhat surprising replacement for Neil Lennon and the treble had been, until recently, the theme of the campaign.

However, an unconvincing start to his tenure saw the former Stromsgodset boss, after passing up on two chances to get through to the Champions League group stages, come under pressure.

But Deila steadied the ship, won over the majority of fans, and guided Celtic out of their Europa League group where hopes ended, but confidence grew, in the last 32 with two encouraging displays against Inter Milan before going out 4-3 on aggregate.

His stamp on the Glasgow club became more prominent in the second half of the season, emboldened further by the recruitment of Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven from Dundee United in the transfer window.

The favoured 4-2-3-1 formation produced some exhilarating performances, a 4-0 home win over Aberdeen in March particularly significant, with a clutch of players performing at the highest standard.

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon arrived on a free last summer after two seasons out through injury, and his form has seen him win back his place in the Scotland squad.

Loan defender Jason Denayer and fellow centre-back Virgil van Dijk, skipper Scott Brown and midfielder Stefan Johansen have shone.

Nir Bitton turned himself into a first pick in midfield and striker Leigh Griffiths has had a terrific 2015 with 15 goals, including hat-tricks against Kilmarnock and Dundee United - taking his tally up to 19 so far.

Deila's first trophy win as Parkhead manager came in March with a 2-0 win over Dundee United in the Scottish League Cup final, following an easy 2-0 win over Rangers in the semi-final.

Treble hopes, however, ended in controversy last month when Celtic were beaten 3-2 by Inverness in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park, referee Steven McLean missing a handball from Caley Thistle defender Josh Meekings inside the box when the Hoops were leading 1-0.

It was a bruising defeat for Deila but the potentially lucrative passport to Europe has been secured again and it is in July, where again the champions of Scotland will begin their Champions league qualifiers, that progress will be assessed. Commons describes those summer fixtures as our biggest games of the season''.

He said: The Champions League group stages is a requirement spoken about every pre-season.

It is not as if we have two or three games to get going. We have to be pretty much on the money from the word go.''