HIS very first touch allowed him to spin past a bemused and helpless marker which drew a free-kick.

A minute or so later, a superbly timed run behind the Livingston defence was followed up by a magnetic first touch of the other kind, the ball had come over his shoulder and stuck to his toe, which would have led to a goal had there not still been a bit of rust on his boots.

And if Tom Rogic had not been a bit greedy and shot himself from a tight angle, and who could have blamed him given how brilliant the Australian was, then a 99th goal for Celtic would have been taken as there was an open net in front of him.

Leigh Griffiths is back, fit once again after 18 months of one problem or another, and his half hour show in the opening day win against Livingston served as a reminder, which perhaps everyone needed, about just how good a footballer this man is.

Celtic fans are all about Edsonne Edouard these days and who can blame them. He scored on Saturday and again impressed with some lovely flicks and tricks. The lad is a serious player but is young and even talent needs a rest at some stage.

Moussa Dembele, out injured again, has the potential to be a serious footballer but he does seem, at this stage of his career, prone to niggles here and there, especially in his hamstring which is never a good thing.

However the best, most natural goalscorer at Celtic Park remains Griffiths and if his calf behaves itself between now and May, he will deliver a minimum of 20 goals for Brendan Rodgers, even if he’s behind the two young Frenchmen when all three are fit.

The only thing which can stop Celtic winning the league is if the squad gets hit by an almost unprecedented injury crisis.

For example, if Griffiths breaks down again, Dembele continues to struggle to put a run together and Edouard, who is 20, loses a bit of form, that would be a lot for any squad to deal with, even one so much stronger than the rest in the league.

And as for Europe, it’s not worth thinking about.

However, if the Scotland man – and the national team sure needs him – can keep a clean bill of health then there is no way that Rodgers and his men won’t make it eight in a row.

It will be interesting to see whether the Celtic manager starts both Edouard and Griffiths on Wednesday for the first-leg of the qualifier with AEK Athens, returning to the 3-5-2 system he began with before Dembele was crocked.

For me, having these twin strikers playing together would be wonderful to watch and awful to defend against. Celtic need goals, not a goal, against the Greek side who will be good if not great.

In the past two seasons, in the champions League play-off which comes after this round, Celtic have taken good leads to Israel and then Azerbaijan 12 months ago and looked less than assured while on foreign soil. Has all that much changed?

I have Celtic down as the favourites to get past AEK but for them to get through a 2-0 win or better would set-them up for whatever waits them in Athens. Griffiths scored goals, he makes goals, he’s terrific at free-kicks. He has to start.

This was an easy win for celtic against a spirited and organised Livingston. They knew they were beaten once Edouard scored at the end of a fantastic counter-attack, which doubled his side’s lead as Rogic’s header set the champions on their way and yet kept going.

Rogic is another reason why Celtic remain so far ahead. The Australian is a wonderful footballer, a great entertainer and if he could only find a way to last 90 minutes then he’d be the best player in the country.

Kenny Miller has an honest group of players which is not a bad place in which to start. It was good to see them not retreating into their shells once the match was won. Their injury time goal by Scott Robinson, thanks to some truly shocking defending, was a just reward.

They are up against it but will give themselves one hell of a chance if they keep together and believe. I just wonder if Miller would be better served standing on the touchline.

Even the Miller of ten years ago wouldn’t have made much difference. The game was predictable.

In saying that, Celtic played some nice stuff. Oliver Ntcham scored a penalty on an afternoon in which he glided across the grass.

It was all too easy for him and all too easy for Celtic.