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Sitting pretty at the top of the league with five wins from their opening five matches, it could well appear to the casual observer that all is rosy in the garden at Celtic once again.
For all they suffered a shambolic Champions League exit at the hands of LASK a fortnight ago, there is a feeling in some quarters that Martin O’Neill’s side remain the masters of all they survey on the domestic front.
A feeling that the quest to win a sixth straight league title in Scotland will be little more than a formality over the coming months.
Yet, in reality, the numbers don’t quite tell the full story. This is a Celtic team who still struggle to pass the eye test at times.
A team with fragility and a soft underbelly. It was exposed in brutal fashion in that debacle in Austria — and it was exposed at times once again in Paisley last night.
Make no mistake, better teams than St Mirren would have taken two or three goals — at the very least — off Celtic.
Yang Hyun-jun is congratulated by team-mates after scoring in the 2-1 win against St Mirren
Striker Nikolas Agrafiotis gives St Mirren the lead with a first-half penalty in Paisley
Celtic boss Martin O'Neill has guided them to the top of the table with five wins out of five
The Buddies, who had 19 shots at goal, wasted several gilt-edged chances in their 2-1 loss and will rue the fact they didn’t at least take a point away from this match.
Granted, in all fairness, Celtic could also have scored another couple of goals had it not been for a couple of tight — and controversial — VAR calls.
Camilo Duran and Shim Mheuka both had goals ruled out for offside. There were suggestions that the technology had malfunctioned and that the lines couldn’t be viewed from a straight enough angle.
All in all, it was another poor night for the Poundland version of VAR that continues to be operated in the Scottish Premiership.
But the concern for Celtic is clear. In the away game against LASK, they conceded 40 shots on their own goal over 120 minutes of football. The numbers are eye-watering.
Even in the home leg in Glasgow, it was 20 shots on their own goal, something that was easy to gloss over with the fact that Celtic won 3-0 on the night.
The reality is that any time Celtic go up against opposition of decent calibre, they look decidedly flimsy and defensively porous.
O’Neill’s side fell behind in the first half last night, with a Liam Scales handball allowing St Mirren forward Nikolas Agrafiotis to convert from the penalty spot. Scales would make amends by netting the equaliser in the second half with a header, before Yang Hyun-jun slotted the winner before heading off to international duty with South Korea.
But this was not the controlled, authoritative performance of a side that has solved its defensive problems.
It was a hard-fought scrap in which Celtic’s superior quality eventually told, but only after they had invited far too much pressure.
Afterwards, O’Neill was fulsome in his praise for Scales, who had deputised at left-back in the absence of Kieran Tierney. Of the other three members of Celtic’s back four, Cameron Carter-Vickers had a solid enough game, while Auston Trusty and Colby Donovan both struggled.
Donovan picked up an early booking and never looked at ease in his efforts to deal with the pace and trickery of Saints winger Ismeal Kabia.
And therein lies the point. For all Celtic have made some quality additions in attack this summer with the likes of Duran and Kasper Hogh, defensive weakness remains a glaring issue.
There was no concerted effort to strengthen in defence. All of the major, marquee signings came at the top end of the pitch.
The lack of a destroyer in central midfield remains a huge issue, as does the lack of a top level centre-back to play alongside Carter-Vickers. Celtic were so vulnerable and so open at times on the counter-attack.
Better teams — those with greater technical quality, better movement in the final third, and the capacity to sustain pressure — will expose that more ruthlessly than St Mirren.
Yang’s winning goal was a moment of quality, born of Duran’s pressing and a swift breakaway that left the home defence outnumbered.
It was the kind of decisive, high-quality strike that has marked Celtic’s attacking play at its best this season.
Duran himself was a constant threat. The forward line and the wide areas can create problems for the opposition.
Yet attacking excellence cannot in itself compensate for defensive vulnerability. Titles are won by sides that can both score freely and keep the door shut. At present, Celtic are strong in the former and still too uncertain in the latter. O’Neill will surely know this.
St Mirren’s 19 shots on goal were not the product of pure fortune. They reflected genuine opportunities created by a side that sensed fragility and attacked it.
Celtic’s next few fixtures will test this further. The more demanding challenges that lie ahead, both domestically and in Europe, will show where this team is at.
Five wins from five at the start of the new campaign may generate some confidence, but nobody should be naive enough to describe it as flawless.
Celtic now face a trip to St Johnstone on Wednesday night, before an Old Firm double-header in the Premier Sports Cup and league. The Europa League campaign will also get under way next week against Ferencvaros, with the likes of Benfica, Celta Vigo, Besiktas and Marseille to come further down the line.
The desire to make a genuine impact in Europe and go on a run similar to that of 2003 was a huge draw for O’Neill in terms of taking the job on again this season.
The fact that Celtic are in the second-tier competition, rather than the Champions League, undoubtedly offers them a better chance to do exactly that.
But, such are the defensive deficiencies, it’s still hard to see how this team will make much of an impact in the Europa League.
Their position at the top of the table in Scotland only tells half the story. It papers over the cracks.
Until that structural uncertainty is addressed with greater consistency and conviction, the champions will continue to walk a tighter rope than their league position suggests.
The wins keep coming. The questions, for now, remain.
Indeed, perhaps the biggest question of all is simply this: can anyone in Scotland mount a sustained challenge to this flawed and fragile Celtic team?
St Mirren (4-2-3-1): Chapman 6; Ramsay 6, Gogic 7, Fieldson 6, John 6; Carr 5 (Young 83), Nsio 6.5; Mochrie 6.5 (Thomas 69), Taylor 7 (Ramos 62), Kabia 7; Agrafiotis 7 (Sule 68).
Booked: Ramsay, Sule, Ramos, Nsio.
Manager: Craig McLeish 6.
Celtic (4-2-3-1): Sinisalo 7; Donovan 5 (Murray 87), Carter-Vickers 7, Trusty 6, Scales 6.5; McGregor 7, Baur 7 (Sorensen 73); Hassan 7 (Forrest 72), Nygren 5, Yang 7 (Tounekti 73); Duran 8 (Mheuka 83).
Booked: Donovan.
Manager: Martin O’Neill 7.
Referee: Ryan Lee.
Attendance: 6,911.
