BEFORE Andy Gray disappeared from British television screens he had enlightened us with an observation which fell short of being as offensive as his misogyny but was most certainly stupid.

During a discussion about Lionel Messi, Gray rather pompously wondered aloud whether the greatest player on the planet was all that because he had not cut it in the English Premier League (best in the world - of course) backing up this by putting forth the rather flimsy argument that the Argentine had not yet proved himself on a “cold, windy, Wednesday night at Stoke” and therefore couldn’t be judged properly.

Pele himself never got the chance to play a midweek match in the Potteries during inclement weather so Gray possibly never rated the Brazilian as much as, say, Peter Crouch.

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A Scottish football equivalent would be whether Messi could raise himself after an exhausting Champions League match for a game in the freezing cold a few days later against a well drilled opponent for whom leaving the boot in seemed to be Plan A.

I’m guessing wee Leo would be just fine, although not every player has it in them to maintain the same level when they go from the glamour of Europe to the grit of domestic football in the Scottish winter.

This is where Celtic found themselves at the weekend. Four days after a fine performance in Germany where they gained a rare away Champions League point against Borussia Moenchengladbach, they had to do raise their game against an Inverness Caledonian Thistle side who arrived in Glasgow determined to make life difficult for the league leaders.

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Celtic would have been forgiven for taking the day off. They have played a lot of games – and the only people with a busier schedule in the run-up to Christmas are elves - so no supporter could have had a gripe if their team had been below their best, maybe one or two doing well, but the rest doing enough to ensure they didn't lose.

However, this is not what a Brendan Rodgers Celtic does. He has instilled a philosophy, missing for too long, that you give everything you have in every single game. It is why his side will win the league by March at the latest.

The bad news for the rest is these players approach even the most humdrum Premiership fixture as they will Barcelona in a few weeks time. Celtic will drop more points than the two they lost in Inverness, and someone is going to beat them. It just won’t be happening anytime soon.

Scott Brown, for the hour he was on before departing with a dead leg, was superb. Just as he had been on the previous Tuesday. The captain snapped into tackles, beat players using his speed, strength and this step-over he has all of a sudden brought to the game.

At the end of the first-half, and by this stage he was limping slightly, it was Brown back in his own box who headed clear a dangerous cross. The man is born again.

Stuart Armstrong was shifted from midfield to right wing-back after Mikael Lustig had gone off early on and produced his best performance for the club. Scott Sinclair played as he always did and scored the first, Callum McGregor put his miss against Borussia behind him with a display full of energy, Leigh Griffiths was back among the goals and Erik Sviatchenko enjoyed another sound defensive outing.

Celtic keep finding those extra gears even on days and in weeks when the legs will be hurting. This is good for Celtic, not so much for the competition.

Moussa Dembele is another who treats ever game as if it were his last. His curling shot, saved by the bust Owain Fon Williams, was tapped in by Griffiths and then Tom Rogic crashed home a third after coming off the bench.

For their part, Inverness were physical, overly so at times, but Celtic can cope with that side of the game.

“We can handle ourselves,” said McGregor with more than a hint of pride. “A prime example was up at Aberdeen where it was a bit of a battle up there and we won 1-0. So it’s not just the wins by four, five, six, we can do the ugly side of the game as well such as standing up to a team like Inverness who come to our place and are physical.

“We need to deal with that kind of thing. All the teams raise their game at Celtic Park and we have to be at our top level every week, stand up to these challenges and we showed that on Saturday. Once we got the goal it opened up and we could have scored four or five.

“There isn’t any negativity around the club. The place is buzzing. We are getting good results more often than not, the team is playing well and all the boys who have been in and out the team have been excellent.

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“We have a good unit, the manager is big on mentality and we have to keep going until the next one, hope to win and then see where that takes us”

Celtic will win the league, maybe a Treble, perhaps they will go unbeaten and while the odds are stacked against them, their hope in Europe remain alive.

The miserable home defeat by Molde was a year ago. Things have changed,

“The difference is that group is that bit stronger, a manager with great experience has come in, he has great tactical knowledge and has implemented that in training every day,” said McGregor. “The boys are learning new systems and new ways of working, which you saw at the weekend when we started a bit different. Every day we are focused on what we can achieve here.”

Celtic can achieve a lot because they can cope with just about anything. Although whether Messi could handle himself at Arbroath's Gayfield Park is, however, yet to be established.