Michael Stewart has told clubs up and down the country that Celtic are the benchmark and it will take 'something extra special' to stop them.
Ange Postecoglou and his troops once again extended their lead over Rangers at the top of the Premiership to nine points after a big win over St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park. The 4-1 success came 24 hours after Rangers' win over Ross County at Ibrox and extends the champions' record to 23 wins in 25 outings this campaign to date with just one defeat to St Mirren and a draw with the Light Blues.
Michael Beale is yet to taste defeat since taking over from Giovanni van Bronckhorst at Ibrox but has been unable to claw back any distance at the league summit due to the relentless form of Celtic, and pundit Stewart believes the table toppers are 'streets ahead' of every other club and it will take something incredible to derail them.
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He told BBC Sportscene : "You say that it takes something special to stop them and that's exactly it.
"It needs to be something special to stop Celtic on any one day but also when you extrapolate that across a full season, it would have to be something extra special to be able to stop this Celtic side.
"For every other club in the country, that's the benchmark they need to try and attain. At the moment, Celtic are streets ahead of everybody else."
Andrew Considine netted an own goal to give the Hoops the advantage before in-form Kyogo Furuhashi added a second midway through the first half.
Drey Wright brought the home side back into the contest minutes later but Aaron Mooy restored the two-goal advantage before David Turnbull rounded off the scoring in added time at the end of the match in Perth.
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