WINNING is part of the DNA of this group of Celtic players. But emotions were still running high at Pittodrie yesterday as the Parkhead side gloried in a top-flight title triumph as turbulent as any of the 49 which preceded it.

Just 24 hours after they had gathered to pay their respects to Billy McNeill, and another few days before they do likewise for Stevie Chalmers, they did so again in the most fitting manager imaginable: by racking up an eighth title in a row.

It isn’t just the recent loss of two of the club’s most famous sons which Celtic have had to endure this season, mind you. There was the traumatic mid-season replacement of one revered manager by another, Lennon replacing his countryman Brendan Rodgers when he departed for Leicester City in late February. There was the departure of their main striker back in August and a minor crisis of confidence halfway through when the club suffered their first league Old Firm defeat for seven years.

Having pressed on the accelerator button in January - they have yet to lose a domestic match during this calendar year - Celtic have slowed down as the finish line approached and it has given the illusion of a meaningful contest. But ultimately, they were still far too good for everyone else.

On an unseasonally cold and dark May bank holiday weekend in the North East, they eventually got over the line by putting Aberdeen to the sword. But really it was just a matter of time.

Celtic have used 34 players this season – and two managers. Both Brendan Rodgers and his countryman Neil Lennon can take kudos from this one but it was fitting that it was the latter who was around yesterday to take the bow in front of the fans. This was his fourth title as manager, and his ninth for the club in all. That is 11 matches unbeaten under him now.

Complete a remarkable triple treble for the club with victory in the William Hill Scottish Cup final in three weeks’ time, and his case to land the job on a permanent basis would surely become irresistible.

After a minute’s applause for Chalmers and McNeill, a former manager of both clubs, it was into the action – with the visitors keen to get their business done in a hurry.

With Kieran Tierney included from the start despite the imminent prospect of a hernia operation, they harried, hassled and hemmed Aberdeen in during that opening ten minutes.

Tom Rogic forced a diving save from Joe Lewis then the Dons keeper, in great from recently, also had to look smart to defy Odsonne Edouard one-on-one as he latched onto a hopeful Kris Ajer clearance, the backtracking Shay Logan doing just enough to put the Frenchman out of his stride.

But it wasn’t just idle chit chat when Aberdeen said pre-game that they were desperate to avoid a title party on their own patch.

Greg Stewart, amid not shortage of intrigue linking him with a move to Rangers, was in the mood, and his clever movement and crosses into the box started to cause the Parkhead side a problem. Dancing away down the left, his delivery was perfect for James Wilson, whose volley skidded off the turf and clipped the crossbar on its way over.

It was a giant let-off for the title chasers, as was the incident shortly afterwards when Scott McKenna led an Aberdeen break out for the back. His driven cross was met first time by Cosgrove, forcing Bain to save well with his feet. Wilson, following up, passed the ball off the outside of the post and win.

The epitaph for Celtic’s class of 2018-19 will be their resilience, an unshakeable belief that they would get the job done even when their backs are against the wall.

They produced their calling card again yesterday just five minutes before half-time. Callum McGregor played in a rapier pass from the left, and Mikael Lustig was off like a shot, catching Stevie May sleeping. The Swede, along with Brown the only two men who have been here for all eight of the titles, flung himself headlong at the ball for one of the sweetest diving headers you will ever see.

The second half was something of a non-event, apart from the inexorable tick of the clock and the quiet turning of the screw by the champions elect.

As soon as Jozo Simunovic, the wearer of McNeill’s No 5 jersey, nodded in his second goal in a week, the party could get started, with the icing on the cake arriving as Odsonne Edouard latched onto a Tom Rogic pass and embarrassed Lewis with the finish.

There were a few fallers along the way. Tierney’s body gave way again, the left back taking a lengthy ovation from the fans as he walked off. Lustig too left the fray late on, although he should be fine for Ibrox next week.

There was a late flare-up too when Scott Brown went into a challenge on young Aberdeen substitute but generally John Beaton, officiating Celtic for the first time since that controversial Old Firm defeat at Ibrox, had a quiet afternoon.

With Lennon briefly dusting down his aeroplane celebration for the travelling support, it was all good-natured stuff, apart from an entirely unnecessary verse or two during the match calling for Derek McInnes to cheer up and calling him a “sad o***** bastard”. The Aberdeen manager, seated in the stand after his reaction to the same chant in the Scottish Cup semi-final, kept his thoughts to his self on this occasion.