CELTIC's fourth meeting in a fortnight with Dundee United carried the kind of heavyweight billing usually reserved usually reserved for one of Don King's promotions.

But if Wednesday night's Scottish Cup quarter final replay was the Rumble in front of the Jungle, there was to be no re-run in the League yesterday afternoon.

After a combined total during their previous three meetings of six red cards, three penalties, numerous successful appeals to the SFA, and at least two separate public slanging matches, the closest we came to a low blow yesterday was a naughty Paul Paton challenge on his former team-mate Gary Mackay-Steven which referee Kevin Clancy deemed was worthy only of a yellow card.

What we did have, though, were a couple of early blows to the Tannadice solar plexus, courtesy of shots from distance from Mackay-Steven and John Guidetti, which left the visitors on the ropes, not to mention a nifty wee backheel from Jason Denayer right on the half-time bell. Had this been a boxing match it would have been stopped well before the end, and it was a rare act of mercy from the Parkhead side that they failed to embellish the 10-1 aggregate score further. With Aberdeen dropping points against Dundee, this may also have been the knockout blow in the pursuit of the SPFL championship. The Dons now trail Celtic by five points, having played a game more.

"We had great control of the game today," said Deila. "Was I surprised at how easy it was? You can see the effects of what three games in six days can do to teams. We do it all the time but you could see Dundee United were tired today. We had more energy. It's great we can change the front four and it doesn't affect how we play. That's very different to where we were in September and October."

Ultimately his prognosis wasn't so very different from that of his opposite number Jackie McNamara, even if there had been a minor war of words between the pair this week when the Dundee United boss accused Deila of showing the strain of attempting to become only the third Celtic manager in history to complete the treble.

"A lot has been made over the last couple of weeks, about the build up, the tackles, the tackle on Wednesday night," said McNamara. "It is what it is. The only one who is missing through injury is our captain [Sean Dillon], through stitches in his shin last week. It has been more of a sideshow than anything else. But I think the four games have been too much for us with the demands for us in the team. The first one playing with nine men, then the final with 10 men, it was the physical demands. But today it was more mental in the first half. I thought we were soft and just accepted things."

If there was an additional impetus about this Celtic team, then it must have been because, having been cup tied for the previous three meetings, Mackay-Steven and Armstrong were finally let loose on the team which they left in return for £2m on deadline day. If both men were feeling in the mood to make a point to Scotland boss Gordon Strachan about their exclusion from the squad for the double header with Northern Ireland and Gibraltar, in particular this was a triumph for the 24-year-old winger, who scored the opening goal and had a hand in the other two.

This game was meandering along unobtrusively enough until Mackay-Steven picked up a short pass from Ambrose and angled a fine drive from fully 25 yards through a ruck of bodies into Radoslaw Cierzniak's bottom right-hand corner. If there was a muted celebration from him, there was no celebration at all from Celtic's second scorer, Guidetti. After a short pass from Mackay-Steven, the Swede's left foot shot from outside the box dipped under the bar, but the symbolism of his non-celebration was lost on his manager. "I don't know why John didn't celebrate his goal," said Deila. "He has a lot of ideas in his head so I don't know what he was thinking of this time. Maybe it was something he's learnt on YouTube."

A deflected John Rankin effort onto the roof of the net might have changed things, but one overly ambitious John Souttar pass from the back should really have led to Celtic's number three, Cierzniak saving well from Stefan Johansen then Mackay-Steven striking the foot of the post from the rebound. The Thurso-born winger was in the mood now, and gasps were still dying down from Paton's lunge when Virgil van Dijk helped on Johansen's free kick, and Denayer cleverly used his heel to turn in his sixth goal of a prolific season.

"They had a big impact today," said the Belgian of Mackay-Steven and Armstrong, the United former players section of this Celtic side. "They are two players with pace and agility, it's important to play with players like this in your side. I am surprised they are not in the Scotland squad because I think they deserve to be after the games against Inter."

Celtic (4-2-3-1): Gordon; Ambrose, Denayer, Van Dijk, Izaguirre; Brown, Bitton; Mackay-Steven (Commons 70), Johansen, Armstrong (Henderson 76); Guidetti (Scepovic 70) Subs not used: Zaluska, Griffiths, Fisher, Forrest Booked: Paton 45

Dundee United (4-2-3-1): Cierzniak; McGowan, Souttar, Fojut, Dixon; Paton, Butcher (Dow 45); Telfer (Muirhead 78), Rankin, Spittal (Anier 78); Ciftci. Subs not used: Zwick, Erskine, Connolly, Spark Booked: Bitton 74, Brown 80

Referee: Kevin Clancy Att: 45,884