Aberdeen’s hopes of challenging Celtic for the Scottish Premiership title suffered a major blow after they were beaten 4-0 by the league leaders at Parkhead.
The Dons enjoyed the better of the first period but were behind at the break after Jason Denayer headed home from a corner after 37 minutes.
Leigh Griffiths doubled the advantage after 63 minutes from the penalty spot after Mark Reynolds had fouled Stefan Johansen before Gary Mackay-Steven drilled home a third.
And Johansen added insult to injury by netting a fourth in the closing stages.
The result leaves the Dons six points behind Celtic, who also have a game in hand.
Jonny Hayes was the surprise inclusion in the Aberdeen line-up, having been expected to miss the match with a hamstring injury sustained in the 3-0 win against Hamilton Accies last month.
The Irishman returned at the expense of Peter Pawlett who dropped to bench while Ashton Taylor was fit enough for a place on the bench having not played since mid-January because of a knee complaint.
Celtic also shuffled their pack following an energy-sapping 1-0 defeat by Inter in Milan on Thursday, during which they had to play the majority of the 90 minutes with 10 men following Virgil van Dijk’s sending off.
Emilio Izaguirre, Stuart Armstrong and John Guidetti were the men to make way for Efe Ambrose, Kris Commons and Leigh Griffiths.
Aberdeen settled well and twice went close to breaking the deadlock in the early exchanges.
Niall McGinn, the former Celtic player, almost curled home the opener only to be denied by Craig Gordon, who tipped the ball onto the crossbar with Andrew Considine heading over from the resulting corner.
The hosts suffered an early setback when Commons limped off and was replaced by Armstrong with a mere 11 minutes on the clock.
The Dons pressure continued with Hayes twisting past Ambrose before crossing for top scorer Rooney whose downward header was well gathered by Gordon.
Hayes was giving Nigerian international a torrid time but the gamble to play him did not pay off with his day coming to a premature end after 32 minutes with Pawlett introduced in his place.
The Dons had dominated the first half but paid the ultimate price for some sloppy defending that was ruthlessly punished by the Hoops.
A woeful clearance from Scott Brown almost proved costly but the Dons goalkeeper redeemed himself with a smart stop to thwart Griffiths.
But from the resulting corner, Denayer rose highest to head home Stuart Armstrong’s in-swinging delivery.
The Dons could have fallen further behind after the restart with Shay Logan making a last-ditch tackle to prevent Gary Mackay-Steven racing in on goal before Griffiths failed to punish the visitors after a mix up between Willo Flood and Ryan Jack.
McInnes’ side continued to look dangerous whenever they surged forward with Considine heading over from Pawlett’s excellent cross.
Celtic thought they had a second after 56 minutes when Griffiths latched on to a Stefan Johansen header and calmly rolled the ball beyond Brown, but the goal was ruled out for offside.
But it wasn’t long before the home support were celebrating.
The Celts were awarded a penalty after Reynolds tripped Johansen and Griffiths made no mistake from the spot.
Mackay-Steven added a third six minutes later when the former Dundee United player was afforded too much space to surge at the Dons defence before unleashing a low drive that nestled in the net with the aid of the post.
And the Hoops scored a fourth ten minutes from time when Johansen guided a Matthews cut back into the corner of the net to cap a miserable day for Aberdeen.