Ronny Deila is wary about St Mirren despite all the signals pointing to a Celtic win when the Buddies visit Parkhead on Sunday.
Saints are second from bottom of the Scottish Premiership ahead of Ross County only on goal difference at the start of the weekend's fixtures.
As a consequence, the Paisley club are also looking for a new manager after the departure of Tommy Craig on Tuesday, with Gary Teale moving up from player/coach to interim boss.
Moreover, St Mirren have not won at Celtic Park since in April, 1990.
The Hoops boss, however, believes the visitors may benefit from a change of face at the helm but is looking for the league leaders to replicate the storming start to their 1-0 win against Motherwell at Fir Park last week.
Deila said: "They will get energy of course, that happens a lot of times (when a manager leaves). So we have to perform.
"I am very motivated for this game and looking forward to it because I saw some sparks in the game against Motherwell that we want to see more of.
"We played very well for 30 minutes against Motherwell and we want to keep on the same way but hopefully for longer.
"I know we are going to entertain and hopefully get three points."
Skipper Scott Brown, James Forrest and John Guidetti all return to the squad after missing the 4-3 Europa League Group D defeat to Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday night for various reasons.
The Scottish champions had already qualified for the last 32 before they flew out to Croatia, with the draw for the next two knockout rounds to be made on Monday.
Deila joked that UEFA would not allow Celtic to be drawn against Legia Warsaw following the controversial clash between the two sides in the Champions League third-round qualifier earlier in the season.
The Parkhead club lost 6-1 on aggregate but took the Polish side's place in the next round after it was discovered that Legia fielded an ineligible player.
"We take what we get but hopefully we get another team," said Deila.
"We have played them - and I think UEFA wants us to meet someone else.
"We have improved since then. Legia were a better team than us but it is a different story now.
"It is going to be exciting but we will see who we get."
Deila criticised the defensive side of his team's performance against Dinamo but on reflection accepted more culpability.
However, the Norwegian is confident he will get it right for the knockout stages - which begin in February.
"I have had more thoughts since Thursday night," he said.
"I have to take some of the responsibility. I was maybe a little bit naive by playing too offensively, aside from changing the team a lot.
"We tried some things, we used the game to test things out and some things went well and some didn't.
"So we need to take this experience to the next stage."
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