GLASGOW — Celtic opened up a 14-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership over Rangers with a 4-0 thrashing of St Johnstone, while their Glasgow rivals were held 2-2 at Motherwell on Sunday.
Ahead of the traditional new year Old Firm clash on January 2 the destiny of the title already looks decided after another miserable away day for Philippe Clement's men.
Rangers fell 2-0 down at Fir Park as goals from Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and Tawanda Maswanhise put the home side on course for a first home league win over the Ibrox giants since 2002.
Clement had rotated his side heavily from Thursday's 2-1 defeat at St. Mirren but his half-time introduction of regular starters Hamza Igamane and Vaclav Cerny did at least salvage a point.
Igamane struck twice in 18 minutes to level, either side of two disallowed goals for Motherwell.
Tony Watt was twice denied, for offside and a foul on Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland, leading to Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell being sent to the stands for his protests.
More dropped points for Rangers means that Aberdeen could go back into second should they end a seven-game winless run later at Dundee United.
Celtic cruised to a 16th win in 18 league games this season despite making five changes with Thursday's trip to Ibrox in mind.
Nicolas Kuhn's 15th goal of the season was scant reward for a dominant first half from the hosts at Celtic Park.
But there was little doubt over the outcome of a top against bottom clash and Celtic made sure of a more comprehensive scoreline in the second period.
Four of Kyogo Furuhashi's eight league goals this season have come against the Saints as the Japan international's quickfire double ended his dry spell in front of goal.
Furuhashi had a simple task to head into an empty net after Paulo Bernardo was denied by St. Johnstone goalkeeper Josh Rae.
Arne Engles' low cross was then prodded in by Furuhashi from close range.
Ross County struck in the 97th and 98th minutes through Joshua Nisbet and Jordan White to deny Hearts in a 2-2 draw.
The visitors, who had led through two goals from 17-year-old striker James Wilson, remain second bottom.
Hibernian beat Kilmarnock 1-0 to close within three points of the top six.
Dundee ended a three-game losing streak with a 2-1 win at St. Mirren.
