Shaun Maloney's 29th-minute strike against Inverness at Parkhead took the league leaders seven points clear of second-placed Rangers. The champions looked flat in the wake of their European exit at the hands of Aalborg in midweek. The one highlight of a turgid game was when Maloney capitalised on a fine pass by Shunsuke Nakamura to fire past Ryan Esson.

Any prospects of a European hangover appeared to dissipate with the news arch-rivals Rangers had lost to Hearts in their lunchtime kick-off. There were several thousand empty seats to indicate a lack of enthusiasm for the fixture, however, and those supporters who did turn up watched the visitors pose several early threats on the counter-attack.

Celtic spluttered in their attempts to gain the upper hand as Inverness slowly grew in confidence. Celtic strikers Scott McDonald and Georgios Samaras struggled to cope with the offside trap early on but there was the inherent danger that the Highlanders would eventually be undone.

As far as the Hoops fans were concerned, it was becoming all too laborious but they had something to shout about when Maloney put them ahead. Nakamura initially tied himself in knots down the right-hand side and the ball was lost. But when he took possession again seconds later, a clever reverse pass allowed the Scotland international to beat the offside trap and slam his shot from 14 yards past Esson.