Lennon delight as Celtic complete ‘brilliant week’ with Aberdeen mauling

Neil Lennon spoke of a “brilliant week” for Celtic following their 4-0 Ladbrokes Premiership hammering of Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

The Hoops went into the game on the back of a  dramatic 2-1 Europa League win over Lazio on Thursday night which followed a 6-0 thrashing of Ross County, and they remained on top form as they dismantled a dismal Dons side

Odsonne Edouard struck in the 10th minute before 18-year-old right-back Jeremie Frimpong made it 2-0 five minutes later with his first Hoops goal in his first away match since signing from Manchester City in September.

Further first-half strikes from James Forrest and Mohamed Elyounoussi had the points secured by the interval and the Parkhead manager could hardly have been happier.

“We’ve had a brilliant week,” said Lennon.

“That’s 10 goals in the league and a fantastic win against Lazio.

“Mentally and physically it could have been draining for them but they recovered brilliantly and played some outstanding, collective team football.

“We were red hot today, absolutely red hot.

“It is just outstanding football, outstanding control or the game. We were magnificent. you can’t ask any more.”

Lennon, who revealed defender Christopher Jullien came off at half-time due to a virus but should be fit for Wednesday’s game against St Mirren, added: “I thought we could have more in the second half but we had good control of the game.

“The mentality of the team was brilliant today and the fitness levels were shining through.

“It is a great place we are in at the minute. We are not getting carried away, we know we have another big week coming up.

“That is the end of a fantastic week for the players and the club.”

Derek McInnes apologised to the Aberdeen supporters for his side’s inept first-half display.

He said: “That was a huge disappointment for me today.

“I was astonished at some of the defending and some of the goals we lost.

“It was painful and I can only apologise to supporters because our supporters are deserving of far better than that.

“I think I am deserving of better than that from my team and my players are better than what they showed today.

“I thought we were awful. After losing the first goal we lacked personality and determination and I always felt every time the ball went into the box in the first half it ended up in a goal for Celtic.

“The biggest issue was the lack of tackles, contact, determination.”

McInnes was particularly displeased by the way Edouard was able to make his way in to the box to fire in the opener.

He said: “The first goal in particular was awful. Awful.

“It is good play from them but the lack of challenge and determination to stop that happening was particularly poor for me and it didn’t get much better.

“We lost confidence from then on and we looked like a team who stood back and admired Celtic’s good play.

“We can still lose to Celtic when they are at their best but I don’t expect us to lose the types of goals we lost today because I expect us to let Celtic know we are there a bit more than we did.”