Celtic have made a perfect start to their league campaign despite their spectacular collapse against LASK – but there is one glaring weakness in Martin O’Neill’s side that could eventually catch up with them.
The Hoops have won all four of their opening Scottish Premiership matches, with last night’s 2-1 victory over St Mirren maintaining their 100 per cent record.
But while the results have been faultless, Celtic are giving their opponents far too many opportunities.
St Mirren managed 19 shots on goal at home yesterday, continuing a trend which has been evident throughout the campaign.
Celtic have faced 130 shots across their eight competitive matches this season, with 34 of those efforts finding the target.
The LASK collapse provided the clearest warning.
A staggering 60 shots were registered across the two legs of that Champions League tie, with Celtic ultimately surrendering a 4-0 aggregate advantage and losing 5-1 in Austria after extra time.
Even removing those two matches from the equation, Celtic have still been conceding an average of 11.6 shots per game domestically.
There is an important caveat.
Celtic’s six Premiership opponents so far all finished sixth or lower in the Scottish top flight last season. They have yet to face any of the sides who occupied the upper reaches of the table and with a trip to Ibrox just around the corner, they could be set for their first challenge in Scotland.
And O’Neill’s defence has still done enough to ensure those chances have not translated into results.
Celtic have conceded just three goals across their six domestic matches, with one coming from a penalty and another an own goal.
Celtic have faced 130 shots in their 8 games so far this season, 34 of which have been on target, that’s the one glaring weakness in their game, it cost them in Austria and if they don’t address it soon, it’ll catch up with them in Scotland, too.
— Inside The SPFL (@AgentScotland) September 6, 2026
So the Hoops are clearly getting plenty right.
But it would be naive to assume the same number of chances will continue to go unpunished once Celtic come up against the better teams in the division.
The LASK defeat demonstrated what can happen when an opponent is clinical, while St Mirren showed again that Celtic are capable of allowing teams to test their goalkeeper regularly, with Sinisalo called into action a few times.
The results are perfect and O’Neill will be delighted with the points haul, for now, but if Celtic continue conceding chances at this rate, it feels less like an issue of whether it will cost them in Scotland and more a question of when.
The Hoops may be sitting pretty at the top of the table, but there is a defensive warning sign that cannot be ignored.
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4 responses
HAS been a good start and many new players still finding how the coaching staff wants them to play and also moving to a new country takes time to settle in but the team is going to be a tough team this season to beat in the spl..
Been saying exactly that since beating Dundee Utd who had 5 shots off the woodwork which means we could easily have conceded 5 goals, LASK firing in 60 shots in 2 games should be ringing alarm bells but doesnt seem to as St Mirren had some target practice last night.
I think this is coming from the wingers not helping out their defenders, we play with only one DM or a mixture of both.
Like this writer says, these chickens WILL come home to roost sooner or later, so long as it doesnt happen v the huns next weekend.
A blind man could see that we lack a strong defensive midfielder to take the pressure off the centre backs. The failure to replace Engels is going to come back to bite us, as every game, particularly in the latter stages, the backline is subjected to intense pressure.
In any defensive capacity, Nyren is a weakling; Baur and McCowan too lightweight; Tounekti a waste of space; and Hassan has still to gel and learn to track back. McGregor, Yang and Duran are the only ones who work their butts off going forward and back but tire later in the game.
We need to get to grips with that lack of presence in midfield.
One thing it’s certainly NOT masking, is the ever increasing desperation in the Scottish media, especially the likes of this one which poses as a Celtic site, to promote continuous negativity regarding the club and the team!
Clearly the feeling is if you can cause unrest among the REAL fans, it can spill over!
Embarrassing!
No mention of the great signings. Only negativity. 👏👏👏👏
Nice one!