IN a week where Mohamed Elyounoussi has taken heat for looking at his mobile phone during Celtic’s abject defeat to Sparta Prague, there was a certain irony that it was he who answered the call to relieve the pressure on his manager Neil Lennon at Fir Park.

The Norwegian bagged two first-half goals against Motherwell from a combined distance of around four yards, but while some of his recent strikes may have caught the eye a little more, the importance of his goals here for both his team and his manager can hardly be overstated.

That value was underlined as Declan Gallagher’s goal hauled Motherwell back into the contest with a little under 20 minutes remaining, but again Elyounoussi stepped up to the plate with a bullet header just minutes later to complete his hat-trick and secure a vital three points for the champions.

The gloss to the scoreline was provided by Olivier Ntcham, who came off the bench to combine with fellow substitute Odsonne Edouard to sidefoot home from close range and give an impression of the match that was perhaps a little unfair on the game hosts.

It wasn’t a flawless performance from Celtic, mind you, and there were still question marks in defence particularly, even with Kristoffer Ajer back in from the start in place of the under-fire Shane Duffy, who dropped to the bench.

Still, a deserved win and the goals that were racked up in the process will have done wonders for confidence in the Celtic ranks.

After a tumultuous few days, the visitors could have done with a nice early settler, and Motherwell duly handed it to them on a silver platter. Liam Polworth dawdled on the ball facing his own goal, and then his attempted pass succeeded only in presenting the ball directly to Albian Ajeti, who peeled in behind on the Celtic right and hammered the ball across Aaron Chapman and off the inside of the post. The bounce favoured the visitors, and the ball crashed off the arriving Elyounoussi and into the net from a yard.

Motherwell almost hit back immediately though as Polworth tried to make amends with a fine chipped ball that found Tony Watt in acres of space inside the Celtic area. His sidefoot volley across goal was cut out by the sliding Ajer, who watched on desperately as the ball skiddled just the wrong side of the post from a home perspective.

Motherwell were asking for penalty when Callum Lang went down under Scott Brown’s challenge, but Andrew Dallas was unmoved, before a nice move down the right allowed Lang to feed Watt, whose shot on the turn was blocked behind by Ajer.

Just as Motherwell looked to be getting a foothold back in the game though, a sublime piece of attacking play gave Celtic a two-goal cushion.

Ryan Christie and Jeremie Frimpong combined well on the right, allowing the latter to feed Tom Rogic inside the area. The Australian danced towards the touchline, and with Motherwell players petrified to put a foot in, he got his head up to cut the ball back for Elyounoussi to claim his second goal with a nice little finish across the keeper.

For all that Motherwell were competing with Celtic somewhat in terms of their chance creation, what will have disappointed manager Stephen Robinson was the simplicity of the visitors' goals. His men weren’t getting tight enough to their opposite numbers, and when you allow better players time and space, they punish you. There was almost a perfect example of the point when Frimpong was allowed to turn all too easily on the edge of the area and given an age to size up a left-foot effort that curled just past the post.

The game should have been out of sight as a lightning Celtic counter from a Motherwell corner saw Rogic stride the length of the park before playing in Christie, but the attacker’s effort sailed over after he chopped back onto his right foot.

Motherwell almost grasped a lifeline at the start of the second half as Polworth’s corner was headed down by Gallagher, but Devante Cole couldn’t force home from close range as Diego Laxalt managed to smuggle the ball off the line not once but twice.

Cole was then lucky to only see yellow for a challenge on Frimpong that led to the right-back receiving an extended spell of treatment, but he was thankfully fine to continue.

Laxalt made another valuable defensive contribution as he got a last-ditch leg in to deny Lang just as the forward looked set to stick the ball in from a couple of yards, the Celtic defence holding firm in the face of a spell of a flurry of home pressure.

They were living a little dangerously though, and it was no surprise when Motherwell eventually did haul themselves back into the contest. Polworth showed what it is he brings to his team with a lovely free-kick delivery which was met by Gallagher, with the ‘Well skipper guiding a header into the far corner. Game on. Briefly, at least.

Just as Motherwell looked to capitalise on any fragility in Celtic’s confidence, Elyounoussi settled the visitors down once more. Substitute Hatem Elhamed hung a ball up from the right, and the Norwegian arrived like a train to plant a header past Chapman.

Ntcham placed the fourth low past the Motherwell keeper from close range with five minutes to go after some fine set-up play by Elyounoussi and Edouard.

For Elyounoussi, it will be a nice change to have praise ringing in his ears for the next few days.