Ronny Deila is hoping that Celtic will wrap up the league title before they play Aberdeen at Pittodrie on May 10.

 

The post-split fixtures give Celtic the chance to win their fourth successive Championship at the home of the team who have been closest to them all season.

The key to this Green party, however, will hinge on both sides winning all their games between now and then.

Deila, though, is crossing his fingers that Aberdeen will drop points before then which would mean that Celtic could then go to Pittodrie in celebratory mode.

"We could win it before Pittodrie, hopefully we will," said Deila. "It's possible - if they lose a game and we win we can do that.

"We want to win the title as early as possible and today was a very important win and we're in to a very important week.

" If you can get into the last five games eight points ahead we have a very good chance."

Meanwhile, Deila was huge in his praise of Leigh Griffiths who bagged a hat-trick after coming off the bench last night.

The striker was instrumental in the victory and would look to have bagged a starting jersey for Sunday's Scottish Cup semi-final clash against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

"He was fabulous," smiled Deila. "You can't do any better than three goals. His contribution was excellent.

"Defensively, we were very good for the first 60 minutes, we had the ball all the time and they didn't have a shot on target. Our attacking play was too slow, too many square passes and we didn't create anything.

"We said at the break we needed to take more risk and get behind them.

"With Leigh coming on we had a lot more movement and we opened them up and got our goals. "

John Guidetti appeared sluggish in comparison to Griffiths last night, but the Hoops boss believes both strikers can complement one another on the same team.

"He and John played well together today and that's something to think about when we play with two strikers," he said. "He's improved a lot in my time here.

"He's training well and as a 24-hour athlete he's been getting better and better, even though he eats cakes on the bench sometimes.

"But it's just a start - he needs to keep working on small things and he'll get even more goals."