Something about the UEFA Champions League brings out the goals in Celtic.

Just as they did pre Barcelona, Celtic warned up for their midweek examination with a thorough domestic win that never truly required that they break sweat.

With a home tie against Manchester City on Wednesday night, Brendan Rodgers will look to take some of the fluency from this resounding victory into the most demanding environs of the Champions League.

And the Hoops boss will have one or two dilemmas to work through over the next few days.

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon was introduced to the fray at the break after Dorus de Vries appeared to be at fault for the opening goal, although it was unclear whether the change was tactical or down to an injury issue.

At the other end of the pitch Moussa Dembele netted his 10th goal so far this season - before making way for the returning Leigh Griffiths who was on the park less than a couple of minutes when he too had the ball in the back of the net.

Gordon or de Vries? Griffiths or Dembele? Food for thoughts over the coming days.

Like Inverness and Alloa, Celtic dominated the early proceedings with the Parkhead side laying siege to the Kilmarnock goal without ever really troubling Jamie MacDonald.

So when Souleyman Couilbaly sunk a cracker of a 35-yard effort, it was fair to say that Killie had taken the lead against the run of play. That de Vries got up to boot a post would suggest that he himself felt he could have done better with the attempt – ferociously hit and dipping all the way – and on first viewing it did appear to be it at a height that he really could have taken it.

Who knows what the watching Gordon made of it – but by the time the interval rolled around the Scotland internationalist was preparing himself to get back in between the sticks.

How long he will be there now remains to be seen.

By the time that Gordon appeared, a double from Moussa Dembele had given Celtic the lead. The first came after a superb cut-back from Kieran Tierney before turning the ball into the net and within a few minutes the 20-year-old striker had netted his 10th of the season for the Hoops.

James Forrest added a third six minutes after the restart when he linked up with Tom Rogic to weave his way through the Killie defence and dink a sliding shot into the bottom corner of the net.

By that point, Celtic were rampant. Dembele came close to getting another perfect hat-trick with a hat-trick that was just over the bar before he went off to be replaced by Leigh Griffiths.

The striker has been sidelined since the game against Aberdeen last month but he was quick at picking up where he left off. Scott Sinclair’s delivery from a corner was headed on by Jozo Simunovic before Griffiths got the final touch to get it into the net.

Minutes later, MacDonald was stooping to collect again when Griffiths handed Sinclair the spot-kick after the Scotland internationalist had been tripped inside the box.

Sinclair duly dispatched the kick to make it his sixth league goal in as many games before Tom Rogic hit a sixth that MacDonald will not relish watching again after the Killie keeper allowed the ball to squirm away from his reach and into the bottom corner.