Christie hits hat-trick in Celtic's rout of St Johnstone

Christie's treble -- including two excellent long range efforts -- and goals from Mikey Johnston, Olivier Ntcham, Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths was the perfect message to send to likely title rivals Rangers and Aberdeen who get their campaigns underway on Sunday.

For St Johnstone it continued their tale of woe against Celtic. They have failed to score in their last eight meetings with the Glasgow giants, last beating them in May 2016.

"I think we were bang on it," Christie told BBC Scotland. "The sun comes out, the pitch is phenomenal and the atmosphere was phenomenal -- and I'm happy to top it off with a hat-trick and victory. He (manager Neil Lennon) wanted us to make a big statement to everybody," added the 24-year-old Scotland international.

The champions took less than 10 minutes to open their account, 20-year-old Johnston scoring with a beautiful individual goal. Christie then grabbed a quickfire double -- his first a stunning long range effort but his second on the half hour mark was down to a goalkeeping howler by Zander Clarke. Christie sealed his hat-trick in the second-half, this time rattling in another long range effort after being teed up by Johnston.

Edouard set up compatriot Ntcham, who scored with his first touch of the ball to net the fifth, and then he got on the scoresheet himself 10 minutes from time. Griffiths, who had created Edouard's goal, made it 7-0 four minutes from time to take Celtic to a seventh successive victory since they lost to bitter rivals Rangers in May.