Celtic thrash St Johnstone to maintain perfect start and stay top of Premiership with emphatic win

On-form Celtic have thrashed St Johnstone to maintain their perfect start to the season with a comfortable win in Perth.

The Hoops stay top of the Premiership on goal difference following the 6-0 win at McDiarmid Park on Saturday afternoon.

Kyogo Furuhashi scored a first-half double and Paulo Bernardo added another to give them a 3-0 lead at the break.

Callum McGregor struck after the restart to all-but ensure the three-points would be heading back to Glasgow and Daizen Maeda put the icing on the cake with a header to make it 5-0.

That made it 15 goals in three games for Celtic following their wins over Slovan Bratislava and Falkirk.

But they weren’t finished there and Adam Idah made it six in the closing stages of the game when he finished off an impressive move with a close range finish.

Maeda had the ball in the net early in the first-half but his strike was ruled out after a VAR check found Auston Trusty fouled Graham Carey in the build up.

Kyogo scored the opener shortly after with a good finish past Ross Sinclair after racing on to a headed through ball by Nicolas Kuhn.

Bernardo, who started over Reo Hatate in midfield, doubled their lead with two minutes remaining of the first-half before Kyogo struck again, this time with a header, to make it 3-0 going into the break.

McGregor continued his scoring run with a strike from distance early in the second 45 to make it 4-0.

It was the captain’s fourth goal of the season, equalling his best league tally in the last five seasons.

Kasper Schemichel was called into action for the first time on the hour mark and he made a good save to deny Aaron Essel and take his impressive clean-sheet record to six games in the league.

Maeda made it 5-0 with 15 minutes remaining when he headed a Bernardo cross past Sinclair.

Idah then got in on the action when he finished off a good move after a chipped ball through by Luke McCowan and touch from Alex Valle set up the Ireland international for a tap-in.

McCowan was then denied twice in the space of seconds, first by the post and then a good save from Sinclair as the Hoops continued to put on the style in the closing stages.

The win keeps Celtic ahead of Aberdeen, who have also made a perfect start to the season, on goal difference after six games.

Brendan Rodgers will now turn his attention to the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund in Germany on Tuesday.