Last weekend's draw at Inverness offered Celtic a perfectly timed reminder of the standards they must strive to maintain ahead of a vital week in their bid to win the treble according to manager Ronnie Deila.
While they will not be decisive in either competition, the Norwegian who has made no secret of his ambition to become the first foreign Celtic manager to win all three major domestic trophies in his first season in Scotland, clearly sees tonight's meeting with Kilmarnock at Celtic Park, Sunday's Scottish Cup semi-final and next week's trip to Dundee as having the potential to break the back of the remaining challenge.
Two league wins would guarantee a minimum eight point lead when the split arrives, while Sunday provides the chance to eliminate the last of their Premiership opponents from Cup contention and Deila is savouring the prospect.
"I think we are in a very important week here," he said.
"It's very exciting and we have to enjoy the moment and be very focused now in the next three matches before the cut, the two league games and the semi-final.
"If we can do well in those three games we put ourselves in a very, very good position and I really have big belief in my players, I think they look very sharp now and very focused. So I'm enjoying every game and looking forward to tomorrow."
Deila admitted that last weekend's draw at Inverness offered his team a reminder of how difficult their task remains if they are to complete the treble, but he is optimistic that playing on better surfaces will help his team demonstrate their superiority.
"I think Inverness were a good team and it's (about) what you expect as well. You expect us to win two, three zero or something and create six, seven, eight goal chances and win in a good way like we have done sometimes lately. That's a hard expectation.
"If you see that match we had the ball 70 per cent of the game. They had two shots on target and we didn't create enough. That's what I'm mostly disappointed in.
"So it's about doing a lot of the things we did well more and we have to create more than we did and I think that's going to be easier on a bigger pitch and a better pitch, hopefully.
"We'll see but that's the target. Expectation is very high and we have been on a good roll, but again nothing is coming very easily."
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