Celtic Park is becoming a shrine to pragmatism. This might offend those steeped in a club's tradition which has often been more about style than success, but as the Scottish Premier League points pile up which dissenter will quibble?
Martin O'Neill's side are now five points clear. "Celtic are on fire!" the radio commentator hollered, and you could almost see the smoke.
Pragmatism, that is, except for one gorgeous moment in the 37th minute. In Lubomir Moravcik it has long been known that Celtic possess one of Europe's special talents - the only problem, as O'Neill has often griped, is that he lay hidden for so long in the eastern bloc and is now 35 years old.
Moravcik, though, is full of feints, flicks and dribbles, a man who can wallop free-kicks to all heights and angles, and swing in venomous corners with either foot.
Yesterday, receiving Didier Agathe's short corner six yards from the touchline, he tried something different: A left-foot shot which sped at such pace that, by the time St Johnstone's Alan Main knew it was a shot, and not a cross, the ball was in his net.
O'Neill, meanwhile, is in danger of setting a standard that stretches back to the Great War. With 13 wins and two draws, Celtic have now passed their previous unbeaten league start, in 1984, and have also matched the run of 15 unbeaten games set under Jock Stein at the start of the 1966-67 season.
The Celtic record stretches back to 1917 when, wearing hoops the weight of sackcloth, the team went 36 games unbeaten. O'Neill is a historian - he will have been told this and taken note.
Poor St Johnstone actually prodded the ball around crisply and with purpose, but once Chris Sutton had cracked in Celtic's opener after 13 minutes the visitors were on a hiding.
Sutton, beginning to look slightly shambling, as in his sabbatical year at Chelsea, nonetheless clouted his shot into the top corner. Aside from Sutton and Moravcik, only Henrik Larsson, as ever, managed to hog any attention.
In the first half he ran through to meet Moravcik's pass and shoot past Main, while in the 59th minute he dispatched one of his exquisite chips, drawing the goalkeeper before wedging the ball up and beyond his flapping arms. When Larsson is behaving like this you know Celtic are showboating.
Rab Douglas, bought from Dundee and in Celtic's goal in place of Jonathan Gould, allowed a consolation effort from Craig Russell past him with nine minutes remaining.
CELTIC: Douglas, Valgaeren, Stubbs, Mjallby, Agathe, Petrov (Healy 64), Moravcik, Thompson, Petta, Larsson (Berkovic 75), Sutton (Johnson 75). Subs Not Used: Gould, Boyd. Goals: Sutton 12, Larsson 34, Moravcik 37, Larsson 59.
ST JOHNSTONE: Main, Sylla, Dods, McCluskey, Kernaghan (McCulloch 76), Bollan, Dasovic, Kane, Evers (McBride 53), Connolly (Russell 69), Parker. Subs Not Used: Cuthbert, Hartley. Booked: Parker. Goal: Russell 82.
Referee: K Toner (Scotland).
