Brendan Rodgers spent a night at a comedy club last week in Glasgow. He was still chuckling this morning after watching his Celtic side beat Hearts 4-0 and eclipse a 50-year record established by the Lisbon Lions.

Celtic’s win over Hearts with goals from Callum McGregor, a double from Scott Sinclair and Patrick Roberts took them another step towards a title that is being won with the Parkhead side barely breaking sweat.

With 27 games unbeaten domestically now under their belt, the question now is just who will have the domestic wherewithal to stop Rodgers’ side. And while few would be silly enough to measure the achievements of the current side against the vaunted and much celebrated Lions, it is a run of results that reflects well on what Rodgers has installed at Celtic.

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With 59 league goals this season, this is a Celtic side who are as far beyond the rest of the pack as their 22-point lead would suggest. Whatever that says about the standard of the league or the quality of fare on offer, it ought not to take the shine off a show of dominancy and consistency.

In Kieran Tierney, back last week after a three month lay-off, the Parkhead side have a 19-year-old fullback who seems destined to play at the very top level. Athleticism aside in terms of his ability to spend 90 minutes running, Tierney’s delivery from the flank created two of Celtic’s goals but was a persistent menace throughout the game.

The superlatives have all been used for the teenager but his fine display was also matched by Cristian Gamboa on the opposite side. The steadiness of Mikael Lustig has kept the Costa Rican on the bench for much of his time at Celtic but his display against Hearts gave the Hoops support a glimpse of what he can offer.

Given that Celtic started the game without an established striker in the squad – Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths both sat out because of injury – few might have expected such a dominant scoreline.

Hearts made a decent fist of it for along spells before the roof ultimately caved in on the Gorgie side. Had Malaury Martin shown a little more composure just before the hour mark when the score was still poised at just 1-0 it might have been a different story.

Celtic, though, eventually got their second goal and were emphatic then in turning the screw.

The injuries to Dembele and Griffiths were not the only unforeseen problems that Rodgers had to deal with.

Stuart Armstrong took a knock in the warm-up meaning that McGregor was propelled into the starting XI at the last minute.

And to be fair to the midfielder, he did not disappoint. Given a central role it was the 23-year-old who broke the deadlock on the half hour mark of a game that Celtic had dominated without ever creating too many genuine opportunities.

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Nir Bitton scorned a decent chance in the early stages of the game when a Sinclair corner landed kindly to him in the box but he slashed his shot well wide.

As fate would have it, it was McGregor who gave Celtic the opening goal when he collected from Sinclair to flick a shot off the inside of the post and into the net.

As the game got underway after the break, Forrest ought to have doubled the hosts advantage when Gamboa flicked the ball through for the winger to collect, but he dithered too long allowing Liam Smith time to intervene.

Roberts stung the palms of Jack Hamilton with an effort from distance, while Martin deservedly went into the book for a kick at Forrest.

Celtic put on Liam Henderson for Forrest as they looked to increase their lead and the mindfielder almost had a hand in setting up a second. It was Henderson who supplied Roberts who dinked an arching shot from the edge of the box that went just wide of the target as Celtic looked to convert their superiority in terms of possession into a more solid advantage.

As Celtic quickly countered after Craig Gordon had foiled Martin – the goalkeeper’s only real involvement in the game - they really ought to have doubled their advantage. It was Tierney’s drive down the left-side that got the ball across the back post where Sinclair put his attempt wide.

It was a stay of execution for Hearts, though, as Celtic’s perseverance paid off.

Tierney’s ball across goal was palmed away by Hamilton to the feet of Aaron Hughes inside his own 6-yard box. The defender allowed the ball to ping off him straight to the feet of Sinclair who slid in to bundle the ball over the line.

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Within minutes Hearts’ fate had got acutely worse as Roberts netted the pick of the day with a fine driving effort high into the net, a goal that again came down to the movement and delivery of Tierney on the flank. Henderson, too, had been involved in the build-up, shipping the ball out to the Scotland internationalist who sent the ball in for Roberts to lash well beyond Hamilton.

Jack Aitchison, who became the club’s youngest ever scorer when he netted on the final day of last season, came on for the final minutes to win a penalty that Sinclair duly converted for his 15th goal of the season.

Cue smiles and applause all round.