THIS was the equivalent of advancing your chess piece up the board then hastily slapping the clock. Your move. In beating Ross County with a performance that was more routine than remarkable, Celtic moved three points back in front at the top of the SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership and threw down the gauntlet to Aberdeen to see if they can once more match them. Derek McInnes’ side would move back level with victory over Inverness Caledonian Thistle this evening and could edge into a three-point lead themselves – albeit having played two games more – should they then defeat Partick Thistle on Friday night. Such to-ing and fro-ing may well prove detrimental to the health and wellbeing of those affiliated to either club but for the remaining neutrals, a genuine title race in the top division for the first time in years is certainly something to be cherished.

There are some inside Celtic, however, determined to act as if isn’t happening. With typical bullishness, captain Scott Brown recently announced that his team would definitely win the league. And on Saturday night, after goals from Leigh Griffiths and Dedryck Boyata had steered his team to a fairly workaday victory, manager Ronny Deila was also not of a mind to acknowledge the threat being posed to his team’s supremacy. “You [the media] talk about Aberdeen all the time. Here at Celtic we don't need to talk about other teams,” as if, like Macbeth, some untold tragedy might unfold merely by mentioning that side from the north-east.

Erik Sviatchenko was not quite so forthright, although he did join his manager in questioning whether the threat to Celtic’s domestic dominance was, in fact, some figment of the imagination. This was the Dane’s first appearance at Celtic Park since his January transfer window move from Midtjylland but already the principle of “taking it one game at a time” has been well drilled into him.

“I think it’s very obvious that in every title race – if there is a title race – that everyone wants to keep track of each other,” he said. “But first and foremost for us is to keep our eyes on ourselves. We did that here and in the next game on Saturday we will do that again. We will keep doing that and at the end we will see that we will be the best.

“If there is a title race then let us be ready but at this moment we will focus about ourselves. We will do our best and I believe we can do it. We all want to be winners so it’s very nice we have a captain who encourages winning – that’s good.”

There was a word of warning, however, from those with experience of the other side. Paul Quinn spent the first half of the season as an Aberdeen player, the highlight of his brief stay scoring the winner against Celtic at Pittodrie in September. He does not think his former club will go away quietly.

“Aberdeen have got enough to push Celtic,” said the defender. “Certainly, the quality is there. They will need a slice of luck along the way, as you do when you play against Celtic. But the lads up in Aberdeen have momentum behind them.

“There has been a lot of negativity on this side of the country about Celtic, their team and their manager. To be honest, I think some people should just look back and give Aberdeen some credit rather than looking at negatives from Celtic, I think it will be really, really tight. It will be very interesting. I think it could go all the way down to the last couple of games.”

Another to have switched clubs recently is Sviatchenko who would have been facing Manchester United in the knock-out phase of the Europa League this week had he remained in Denmark. There are no regrets, however, with the decision he has taken.

“I’ve not thought for any second about that game,” he added. “I’m just happy for my former teammates that they will play that big game. It’s a huge game for Midtjylland but I’m here enjoying Paradise. I have a career and you have to focus on yourself sometimes - even though football is a team sport it’s also about individuals sometimes. You have to feel for developing and I had to develop even further. That’s the thing I’m doing here now.”

The use of the word Paradise to describe Celtic Park was a sign of a man who had done his homework. “I like to read a little bit about it so I’m teaching myself. Obviously it’s a club with a massive history so it’s easy to get information about the club. I did my research well and some of the values Celtic has - like wanting to improve everything and to optimise things - are also something I stand for. So far it’s a good match.”

County stunned Celtic in their recent League Cup semi-final at Hampden but struggled to make anything near the same kind of impact here.

“We didn’t come here to sit and camp in, but we did come with a plan to frustrate,” admitted Quinn, back at the Dingwall club for a second spell. “And for 44 minutes we did that. Fair play to Celtic, though. They kept prodding us and it was a great finish from Griffiths. You have to take your hat off to him.”