Celtic 6
xG 6.35
(Abada 17, 22, Turnbull 28, 44, 84, Edouard 82)
St Mirren 0
xG 0.17
Before kick off our probabilities of winning the game were 74%.
The team line up was;
- 15 Hart
- 56 Ralston, 4 Starfelt, 57 Welsh and 3 Taylor
- 17 Christie, 42 McGregor and 14 Turnbull
- 11 Abada, 22 Edouard and 8 Kyogo
With Edouard coming in for Rogic, which pushed Kyogo wide left and Christie into the right midfield role.
Soro, Rogic and Ajeti made an appearance as subs.
Turnbull had 13% of the team's total passes with 77 which eclipsed his 74 passes versus Dundee. He also matched the 104 touches he had versus Dundee. He had 4 key passes, 8 shots and had a passing accuracy of 91%. He had an xG of 1.22 and PS xG of 2.26 and obviously took the match ball with his hat-trick.
Also worth some recognition is Abada who had 7 key passes, an xA of 1.61 and also had 2 goals from an xG of 0.51.
A special mention must go to our full backs who continue to improve and between them they had an xA of 1.1, 6 key passes, 2 assists and 18 box touches.
Looking at the match trends in 15 minute segments we were quite consistent across the game with the exception of the 15 to 30 minute spell but the lack of touches in that time would have been severely impacted by the time restarting the game for the 3 goals and there was also Power's sending off during this period.
Also every 15 minute spell had passing accuracy which was at least 90%. In the two previous league games this season we had at least one 15 minute period that had less than 90%.
Our total touches, possession and passes etc were similar to the Dundee and Hearts game in that they were well above last year's average and in the top ranked performances versus last year. However some key differences in this game were;
53% of the game was played in St Mirren's defensive third.
We had 412 final third passes.
We had 74 box touches.
All three metrics above were the best in any league game including the 38 last year and 3 so far this year.
Second best for % in the final third was 44% versus Motherwell at home in February.
Second best for final third passes was 307 versus Aberdeen away in May.
Second best for box touches was 58 at home to St Johnstone in May.
So all three records being totally smashed.
Also and more importantly our NP xG of 6.35 is our best and follows on from two very high NP xG numbers. Three domestic games in a row with NP xG numbers over 5 is absolutely incredible.
Last season only one team had an NP xG of over 3.65 and that was Rangers away to Hamilton with an NP xG of 4.86. With an NP xG of 5.81, 5.38 and 6.35 we have totally smashed last year's best three times already.
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