The title race takes a backseat for Celtic this week but they can’t afford to take the foot off the gas.
I understand why the Premiership crown is the be all and end all this season, especially with the Champions League prize at stake for the winners.
But I believe Celtic have got themselves in to a position where they should be thinking about winning everything – including the Europa Conference League.
That would have sounded a preposterous idea back in the summer when Ange Postecoglou inherited a shambles.
Yet they are now in a position where they have the squad and the momentum to challenge on all fronts.
Look, I’m not saying they will win a quadruple and I don’t think the title is in the bag just because Celtic thumped Rangers last week to go top.
You can’t write the Ibrox club off yet as they have stabilised after Parkhead and are back in the hunt.
It will go to the wire and even if Celtic fall short, there is no denying the progress made this term and the optimism that will remain for the future under this manager.
But if I was in that dressing room I wouldn’t be thinking about being second best in any competition.
Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup could be a tricky test as John McGlynn is a wily manager who will make his side hard to beat.
Bodo/Glimt have shocked teams all across Europe this season and will be another difficult tie.
I don’t know if fans would rather Celtic made the league a priority but I would be looking to take each challenge head on.
And I suspect Postecoglou will be the same. He doesn’t seem to have a reverse gear and he will want to keep the momentum rolling.
He can rotate more now and you’d think the likes of Christopher Jullien might get a run out against Raith.
But it should be all guns blazing against Bodo and see where it takes them.
There are some decent clubs in the Conference League – such as Roma, PSV Eindhoven, Marseille and Fenerbahce.
That’s a company Celtic can mix in though, so why not aim to go far, and maybe all the way.
This is a club where a draw is a disaster and you’re expected to win ever week regardless of the opposition.
It’s also a club where you can’t expect to turn up and just win though.
There will be plenty of people looking at the goals Celtic conceded at Pittodrie and think it’s evidence they haven’t quite cracked it.
But I don’t think Postecoglou ever said they had.
If you listen to what he said after the Rangers and Motherwell games, he wasn’t getting carried away.
He said there was still work to be done and improvements to be made.
We saw that the other night.
Celtic were completely comfortable in the first half at Aberdeen. They looked like they were cruising to another win that was done and dusted in the second half.
But this was maybe a bit of a reminder they have no divine rights to win football matches.
Teams are not just going to roll over and let them pick up the points.
Aberdeen’s ninth place in the league is a false position for me. They’ve been wildly inconsistent and thrown in some shockers.
They have also achieved some decent results and you only have to look back to the Rangers game, when they were unfortunate not to win the match.
Fair play to them, they came out fighting and it showed Celtic there is still things than need to be addressed.
I don’t think you can go overboard and batter them for the goals. Yes, they were set-pieces again and it’s been a bit of an Achilles heel at times this season.
They also have the best defensive record in the league though.
You’ve got to say they were guilty of a couple of lapses in concentration the other night – but it might have been because they were so far in front.
It ended up a bit of a kick up the backside, and that’s no bad thing sometimes.
You can’t really fault Postecogou and his side right now. They are unbeaten in 20 in the league and have won 21 points out of 21 since coming back from the break, having faced all of the sides in the top six plus Aberdeen.
That’s a pretty impressive haul and they’ve managed to turn a six-point deficit into a lead at the top of the table.
They’ve also managed to win these games in a manner of different ways. They swatted aside Rangers and Motherwell, but they had to dig it out against Dundee United and now Aberdeen. Even Alloa was another challenge to be overcome.
They’ve done that and it’s got them into a position no one would have expected at the start of the season.
They’ve also done it while at times producing some of the best football I’ve seen from Celtic in years. It’s been breathtaking at times.
You look at some of the play at Tynecastle, the way they blew Rangers away and that display at Fir Park, where it could have been a cricket score if not for keeper Liam Kelly.
It was heading that way again at Pittodrie until the second half scare but having been part of Celtic sides who have gone long unbeaten runs, I know it takes all kinds of performances to get results.
It’s not going to be silky football every week. Celtic have found different ways to win and the challenge is to keep it going on all fronts.
