Aberdeen’s wait for a league victory at Celtic Park continues as the Hoops moved eight points clear with a 3-0 victory.
The Dons, without a league win at Parkhead since 2004, fell behind to Mikael Lustig’s deflected effort five minutes before the break.
Former Aberdeen midfielder Jonny Hayes doubled the advantage after 69 minutes with his first goal for the Celts before Olivier Ntcham seized upon a Kenny McLean error to add a third.
Aberdeen made four changes from the team that defeated Hibernian 4-1 with Mark Reynolds, Kari Arnason, Dominic Ball and Greg Stewart stepping in for Shay Logan, Stevie May, Scott McKenna and Ryan Christie, who was ineligible to play against his parent club.
Hayes returned to the Celtic line-up as Brendan Rodgers made three changes with Moussa Dembele and Ntcham also starting. Odsonne Edouard, James Forrest and Callum McGregor dropped to the bench.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers had a flawless record against the Dons prior to this one, having won all seven contests with a 17-3 aggregate score.
After a scrappy start to proceedings, the Dons almost took the lead after 23 minutes.
Gary Mackay-Steven, brimming with confidence after last week’s hat-trick against Hibernian, robbed Dedryck Boyata of possession before firing just wide.
The hosts went close a minute later but Dons goalkeeper Joe Lewis made a superb save to deny Scott Sinclair.
The Dons were well in the game at this point and Stewart was next to test Craig Gordon, twisting past Ntcham before his low drive was palmed away by Gordon.
Aberdeen had performed resolutely but they went into the break behind when Lustig netted a fortuitous opener five minutes before the break.
Stuart Armstrong found Hayes, whose quick pass picked out the unmarked Lustig on the edge of the area with the Swedish international’s curling effort taking a big deflection off Dominic Ball that left Lewis helpless.
The Hoops almost doubled their advantages in the first minute of the second half with Dembele’s left-footed drive deflected inches wide with the young Frenchman nodding over from the resulting corner.
Ntcham dragged a powerful effort wide soon after before Armstrong volleyed over as the home side continued to put pressure on the Dons.
Kieran Tierney shot straight at Lewis before Dembele went close on two occasions as the visitors struggled to get out of their own half.
The Dons threatened on a rare foray forward in the 67th minute when McLean’s deflected shot from 30 yards had Gordon scrambling with Kari Arnason nodding just over from the following set-piece.
But the Hoops got their second after 69 minutes courtesy of some poor defending from the Dons when Reynolds attempt to clear a Sinclair cross bounced off teammate Arnason and into the path of Hayes who tapped home from close range.
It went from bad to worse for the Dons seven minutes later when Ntcham pounced on a woefully short pass-back from McLean, skipped past Lewis and slotted into an unguarded net to kill off the game as a contest.