Celtic separated themselves as early favourites for the Scottish Premier League title as they thrashed Dundee United 5-1 to make it three wins out of three in the season’s opening fixtures.

The Boys got over the blow of losing Emilio Izaguirre to a broken ankle in emphatic style as they scored five goals in front of the home crowd, each goal coming from a different player. Anthony Stokes put them ahead early after some bad defending allowed the Irish forward to bag his third goal in three games; after a hit and miss season last year, Stokes looks to be a star player for the Glasgow side through the rest of this campaign.

However, just as United’s defence was at fault for the first goal, Celtic’s was at fault for the second. A messy headed clearance from Majstorovic lead to a mishit and misjudged shot from John Rankin which fortunately fell at the feet of Johnny Russell to tap into Celtic’s open goal. The goal was almost immediately nullified though as, despite a fantastic double save from United keeper Dusan Pernis, Gary Hooper nodded home to make it 2-1.

The fourth goal of the match came following a menacing run from Kris Commons ending with a perfectly placed through ball for Ki Sung-Yeung to connect with, driving it powerfully into the top corner. More brilliant build-up play lead to a fourth and then a fifth from Joe Ledley and James Forrest. Neil Lennon, who had returned to the sidelines after playing in a Celtic vs Manchester Utd Legends match earlier in the week in which Henrik Larsson returned to Celtic Park to score a hatrick in a 5-2 win, was delighted with his team’s performance.

Rangers once again managed to scrape a 2-0 victory over Inverness CT after two dubious second-half penalties were awarded, the first was put away nicely by Nikica Jelavic and the second was saved only to have the rebound slotted home by Maurice Edu, who was later sent off for a second bookable offence.

Elsewhere in the league, Paulo Sergio’s bright start as manager of Hearts continued as John Sutton scored a brace in a 3-0 victory over Aberdeen, who have still picked up only a point from their first four league games. Motherwell and Dunfermline also continued their bright starts to the season with 1-0 victories over St Mirren and St Johnstone respectively.

Hearts will look to continue their good run of form into Thursday’s Europa League clash with Tottenham at Tynecastle, where should they prevent the visitors from scoring more than a goal they should feel they have a small chance going into the return leg in London. Celtic and Rangers should not have a great deal of trouble against their opponents; however, it’s not uncommon for Scottish clubs to get knocked out of European qualifiers to far weaker opposition.

In transfer news, Celtic have turned to Craig Gordon to fill their goalkeeping place and look likely to confirm a season-long loan of the Scottish international sometime in the next week. While on the blue side of Glasgow, Rangers are looking to further their US links by signing US captain Carlos Bocanegra from St Etienne for a fee of around £500k.