Leigh Griffiths netted in Celtic's last Premiership match
Scottish Premiership
- Venue: Celtic Park, Glasgow
- Date: Saturday, 29 August
Coverage: Updates on Golsicilia.it Radio Scotland & Golsicilia.it Sport website
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TEAM NEWS
Celtic full-back Mikael Lustig is struggling for fitness ahead of Saturday's Scottish Premiership meeting with St Johnstone.
Defender Virgil van Dijk did not train on Friday but is expected to be fit to face the Perth side while a late decision will be made on James Forrest.
Saints' Steven Anderson remains on the sidelines with an eye socket injury.
Right-back Darnell Fisher, signed on loan from Celtic, will not play against his parent club.
COMMENTATOR’S NOTES
Celtic Park could be a fairly subdued place on Saturday, an understandable consequence of Wednesday's harrowing Champions League exit.
Last season, after suffering the same fate, Celtic drew away at Dundee as manager Ronny Deila endured a difficult start to his tenure in Glasgow.
An intriguing element of this fixture is how Deila and his players respond to such a massive disappointment this time around.
It will also be interesting to observe how many of the players who performed so poorly in Malmo will be given the immediate opportunity of at least partial redemption or whether the manager shuffles the pack as he did so successfully last weekend in the win against Dundee United.
St Johnstone will clearly go into the game as outsiders but a win the last time they visited Celtic Park will be fresh in the memory of the visiting players.
The test for them is whether they can capitalise upon any edginess that may be evident from the home team and their supporters.
Celtic are capable of blowing teams away with the intensity of their pressure at the beginning of games, so key to St Johnstone's hopes of a positive result is surely a solid start.
All five of their league matches so far this season have been close – losing twice by the odd goal as well as being held at home by Ross County and Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Last week's victory over Motherwell was their first and they will be keen to go into the international break on a high.
However, the onus is on Celtic to start to pick up the pieces of a season that has begun with a dispiriting reminder that their domestic dominance is no guarantee of a place among Europe's elite.