Aberdeen 1-2 Celtic: Are big-game players keeping Celtic in title hunt?

Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton said of Nygren on Sky Sports: “What a strange player. He can get lost in midfield but he scores goals.”

Just as Daizen Maeda still looks like a shadow of the player who lit up Scottish football last season, January loan signings Tomas Cvancara and Junior Adamu have yet to fully impress and Kelechi Iheanacho has faded away despite returning from injury.

Nygren is not one of the title-winning names Tierney mentioned in Celtic’s squad, but the 24-year-old Swedish midfielder is doing more than most to ensure he picks up a league title medal.

Former Celtic midfielder Scott Allan spoke enthusiastically on BBC Radio Scotland Sportsound: “The effective substitution you saw at the weekend you saw again tonight with Benjamin Nygren and James Forrest coming together.

“The great innings of Forrest and Nygren just finished; we’ve seen that over and over again and he’s had a real impact on this team.”

Indeed, Nygren has scored three times and made one assist in his last four Premiership games – and his 15 goals are more than any other Celtic player in the league this season.

“I know Nygren has given up on some parts of the game, but what he does is get into the box and get to the end of it,” Allan said. he said.

“I felt his overall play in the game was really good, he played some nice tackles, he always looked like he was going to be a threat run around the 18 yard area and he made the difference again tonight.”

His manager was equally excited.

“He does something like scoring goals, which is the hardest thing in the game, and he came out again with what proved to be the winning goal,” O’Neill said.

“The substitute players in the last few weeks have made great contributions to us, which is important for us.”