Ronny Deila was delighted by the display of two goal Patrick Roberts as Celtic beat Hearts 3-1 to go seven points clear of Aberdeen.
Gary Mackay-Steven equalised Jamie Walker’s opener in the 15th minute before two strikes from Roberts either side of half time gave the home fans something to celebrate.
The 19-year-old signed a loan deal from Manchester City in January and looks set to play a starring role as Celtic go for the double of Premiership title and Scottish Cup.
“He was very good, he was involved maybe seven or eight times on the ball and scored twice, what more can you expect,” Deila replied after being asked if Roberts had played his way into a regular starting place. “It will be hard to leave him out. Every time he has it in the right places something happens. We need to keep feeding him the ball.
“I went to watch him in the (England) under-19s on Tuesday against Spain (in Spain), that was good for me to see him there as well.
“He is an important player for us but we have many good players. We have three games so we will see what we will do.”
“He was very, very good, every time he has the ball in the right spaces something is happening,” Deila said. “We just have to keep feeding him the ball
“You can see that he’s a special talent. He’s hungry and today he was the difference for us. It will be hard to leave him out after this.”
Deila made five changes to the side that started at Kilmarnock a fortnight ago but it was Hearts that struck first when Sam Nicholson opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a shot that Craig Gordon couldn’t get near.
Celtic were back on level terms in the 15th minute when Gary Mackay-Steven controlled the ball just inside the penalty box then drilled a low drive across Neil Alexander into the net.
Just past the hour mark Celtic went in front when Roberts raced into space to collect a pass from Rogic before his shot past the approaching Alexander.
Three minutes into the second half Roberts extended Celtic lead with a great shot curled around Alexander after coming in off the right flank to pick up a lay off from Stefan Johansen.
Hearts refused to give up on taking something from the match but with a two goal cushion Deila was able to substitute Leigh Griffiths with Colin Kazim Richards given a run for the last 13 minutes.
CELTIC: Gordon; Lustig, Sviatchenko, Boyata, Tierney; Brown, Johansen; Roberts, Rogic (Bitton 45), Mackay-Steven (McGregor 68); Griffiths (Richards 77).
SUBS: Fasan, Ambrose, Commons, Forrest