Japanese samurai Hatate slashes the Rangers in the Glaswegian madhouse

Rangers made the headlines in January with two notable loan signings, with Amad Diallo from Manchester United and Aaron Ramsey from Juventus. The couple of arrivals was supposed to ensure the Gers' road to another Scottish Premiership title. But their rivals Celtic have had a few signings of their own.

The Japanese trio of Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi have signed for Celtic on the same day from the J-League teams. All of them were virtually unknown and nowhere nearly as glamorous as Rangers' reinforcements. But at least one of them will be remembered forever by the Hoops' faithful. Hatate scored two great goals and provided an assist to set Celtic on the road for a famous victory over their rivals. It was a dream night for the midfield samurai who only arrived at the start of the year from Kawasaki Frontale.

Hatate struck two long-range goals that will be remembered for a long time. Veteran goalkeeper Alan McGregor has had a great game for Rangers as Celtic kept on coming again and again. The visitors were lucky to get away with just three goals conceded!

The magnitude of the Glasgow rivalry was already enormous, but this season it's been lifted to another level. The Celts have strung nine titles in a row and were cocky going into last season, only to be denied the mythical "Ten in a row" by Steven Gerrard and his Rangers. This season, the green and whites are the challengers once more, a role that seems to suit them. Led by Australian coach Ange Postecoglou, they made the most of Rangers' poor run of late and punished them for dropping points in front of the noisy crowd at Celtic Park.

Managed by Giovanni van Bronckhorst, the visitors gave a start to Amad Diallo while former Arsenal man Aaron Ramsey watched his new team from the stands. The Welshman cannot get in the team too soon because the reigning champions of Scotland looked very poor in the middle of the park.

Celtic were delighted with their first-half lead and played much more conservatively after the break, allowing the visitors to hang onto the ball for much longer. However, they never looked like making anything resembling a comeback as former Manchester City and England custodian Joe Hart remained largely untested in the Celtic goal. The closest they came to scoring was a thunderous Ryan Jack shot that cracked off the crossbar ten minutes from time.

Zambian forward Fashion Sakala replaced the quiet Amad for Rangers but couldn't do much to improve the humiliating night for his side.

The final whistle could hardly be heard as buoyant Celtic fans celebrated a much-needed win that sees them leapfrog their arch-rivals and take the top spot in the table. The race for the title in Scotland will surely go down the wire.

Celtic have got a new Japanese hero – Reo Hatate!

SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP – Round 22

Tuesday

Dundee – Dundee United 0-0

Hibernian – Hearts 0-0

Livingston – St. Johnstone 1-2 (1-1)

/Anderson 34 – Hendry 11, Crawford 90/

Ross County – Aberdeen 1-1 (0-0)

/Callachan 53 – Hayes 48/

St. Mirren – Motherwell 1-1 (0-0)

/Gogic 81 – Tierney 90+2/

Wednesday

Celtic – Rangers 3-0 (3-0)

/Hatate 5, 42, Abada 44/