Brendan Rodgers has insisted that Celtic want to win the title off their own back.

The Hoops moved to within just three points of their sixth successive title with the 2-1 win over Dundee at Dens Park yesterday afternoon.

Aberdeen play Paul Hartley’s side on the Friday night after the international break before Celtic play Hearts at Tynecastle on the Sunday afternoon, meaning that the title could be sealed without the Parkhead side kicking a ball.

Celtic have won six successive titles twice in their history but Rodgers would ideally like to take themselves over the finish line.

“I always said when I came in we weren’t defending a title, we were looking to win it,” said the Celtic manager. “The ideal scenario is you win it yourself, but I’ll take Dundee winning.

“We never expected to win it as early as we can. We’ve done our best in every single game and an immense amount of credit must be given to the players for the focus and mentality they’ve had and games like today they can see through and win.

“We never take it for granted or have been complacent. We have to win it and earn it.

“We have a couple of weeks and I hope they all come back from international duty fine. It was our intention to win every trophy, that was our idea, so this is our next one. Can we win this and as quick as we can?”

Celtic could wrap up the Championship with nine games still to play in the league, but Rodgers has insisted that there will be no let-up when the Parkhead side formally confirm their title status.

“It’s still a way out yet,” he maintained. “We still have nine games to go and it has been a long season for the players but we’re really motivated to finish the best way we can.

“It’s always nice. If you can finish strong and then it sets you up to begin the following season well.”

And the Hoops boss insisted that there was no nervousness on Celtic’s part yesterday as Dundee threatened to snatch a late point from a game that the Parkhead side had effectively controlled.

Erik Sviatchenko was introduced to the fray at Scott Sinclair’s expense after Dundee had pulled a goal back, but Rodgers has maintained that it was just a reaction to the game.

“No, not nervousness, you are dealing with longer balls, they are throwing everything in, trying everything, gambling to get something from the game so you have to give a little bit of stability to the defence,” he explained. “We’ve done it before, a number of times when we’ve had to defend. He came on and just calmed it, gave us the extra body for longer balls.

“The boy [Marcus] Haber is good in the air so he wins a lot of flick-ons and the boy that came on is quite bright, he plays beside him. So we just wanted to make sure we could have that stability.”